


The God of the Lost

by DramioneOG



Series: Fics by Gravidy [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:41:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 64,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29022150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DramioneOG/pseuds/DramioneOG
Summary: Lost, alone and wandless, Draco and Hermione rely on each other to survive, while back at Hogwarts a war is brewing between Slytherin and Gryffindor.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Series: Fics by Gravidy [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129034
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. The Straight and Narrow

**Author's Note:**

> This fiction is by Gravidy. She is an amazing author and removed her profile from ff.net a while back. Just preserving her works for the fan community. Happy to remove this if the author does not want them on AO3.
> 
> Disclaimer: In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to JK Rowling, Warner Bros, Bloomsbury Publishing, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work.

To Draco Malfoy, the inside of Borgin and Burkes was about as interesting as last years racing broom. The seventeen year old sighed and leaned impatiently against the moldy counter while his father stood stoic and unmoved, ignoring his son's restlessness.  
  
Draco had been in this stupid shop more times then he could count and, except for the odd piece here and there, the displays never changed. The display was just that, a display, meant only to appease nosy Ministry inspectors and not really for retail. No one came to Borgin and Burkes to buy the floor items, as Draco well knew, they came for the good stuff, the stuff not on display, the stuff in the back rooms. Draco itched to see the back rooms, had heard tales of the marvelous and wicked magical relics Borgin and Burkes kept there, but no one else was allowed in and it was said to be guarded almost as heavily as Gringotts.  
  
So he was stuck pacing the small, unkempt shop and today was no different then any other of Draco's visits. He'd given the place a once-over and found that not a single damn thing had changed since he'd been there last. It seemed not a single thing in Diagon alley had changed since he'd been there last. It was absolutely boring. After seven years, pre-Hogwarts shopping had become a major chore.  
  
And Malfoys simply did not do chores.  
  
He really would rather have stayed at home or gone out with friends and sent a couple House-Elves to get his Hogwarts supplies but his father needed to pick up a few things from Knockturn alley and his mother wanted to get out of the mansion for the afternoon and while he didn’t believe there was anything in Diagon alley that he wanted at the moment, shopping with his parents meant at least one present, and he had to make sure they got the right thing, so in the end he'd decided to go. And so far it had been a total bust.  
  
His only consolation was that they were very nearly done with their wasted afternoon. Most of his school supplies, including six new books and a set of the finest robes galleons could buy, sat on the counter wrapped in a neat little package charmed to carry it all. His mother was out buying the last thing on his list, his ingredients for Advanced Potions, and if Mr. Borgin ever got around to bringing them Lucius' order, they were going to go look at a pair of dragon-hide boots he'd taken a fancy to when they first arrived. But it seemed Mr. Borgin was taking his sweet time.  
  
Draco glanced over his shoulder at the third member of their party.  
  
Serge Lestrange was standing before a shelf display filled with dolls. Some fabric, some plastic, some hand-sown, a few made of glass, and all of them cursed or possessed or filled with dark magic. Draco turned fully around to frown at the man. Lestrange stood, stock still, staring at the dolls. He had his head cocked slightly to the side, as if listening.  
  
Draco had never met anyone who was crazy before, but he felt, with a distinct certainty, that Serge Lestrange was a complete and total psychopath. And he wasn't far off the mark.  
  
Lestrange and his wife Naoko had been staying with the Malfoy's since Voldemort had busted them out of Azkaban a year ago. It was a secret, of course and Serge was in disguise. He was currently going by the name Philippe and his wife by Margaret. Both of them liked to change their aliases periodically. Draco felt this was odd and certainly not very smart since they'd been known to introduce themselves by different names to people they'd met before, but hell, what did he know?  
  
Life at the Malfoy mansion hadn't altered much with the two additions to the household but Draco still felt it was rather creepy to get out of bed in the middle of the night and find Serge Lestrange wandering the halls silent as a ghost, or standing in the front entryway staring out the window as if expecting someone. Even more disturbing were the talks Serge had with Draco. The man seemed fond of him and liked to talk to him about becoming a Death Eater and his duties towards Lord Voldemort. This was nothing Draco hadn't heard before but Serge liked to pepper these talks with comments about how much Draco reminded him of Voldemort and how if Draco really wanted to seize his destiny he should destroy everything that was holding him back. Draco got the feeling Serge was trying to hint at something but he could never fathom what.  
  
Naoko was only a tad less insane. The woman spent her time talking quietly to herself and mixing potions Draco had never heard of. Other than that she was cold and snappish and Draco stayed out of her way.  
  
Draco wasn't certain why Serge had insisted on accompanying them on their shopping trip. He certainly hadn't bought anything and his presence caused a stir. He was using Polyjuice potion but for some reason he had refused to leave the house that morning without a mask, as if he were afraid someone would see through the potion. Lucius hadn't been able to talk him out of it. So now he was following them around like a specter, white theater mask covering his face, short blond hair matted and awry and amber eyes gleaming wide and staring from out of the eyeholes. He had yet to say a word since they left the house.  
  
Draco stared hard at Lestrange but the man didn't twitch a muscle. Finally he gave up and turned back to the counter. Mr. Borgin still hadn't returned.  
  
He rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath about incompetent sales clerks and rotten service. His father shot him an irritated look and he subsided stiffly. He supposed his father was still angry with him for not making Head Boy. He'd been read a long and humiliating lecture when his father found out about _that_. In an attempt to defend himself, he'd pointed out that Lucius hadn't been Head Boy either. He winced at the memory. That hadn't gone over well.  
  
Honestly, he didn't see what the big deal was anyway. He couldn't care less about being Head Boy. The whole thing was a scam; just an excuse for the Professors to give you more work while telling you it was an honor you should thank them for. He would have needed a lot more incentive then a dingy little tin badge to actually motivate him to try for the position.  
  
Draco tossed Lucius a scowl when the man's head was turned. His father could glower and throw tantrums all he wanted, it wouldn't change anything, and it certainly wouldn't make Draco care. The only thing that did bother him about it was that he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who the Heads were going to be: Potter and Granger. In the bag. Hands down. Fuck them anyway. He really hoped it ate up Potter's Quidditch practice time and Granger's study time. Wouldn’t that be a lark. Maybe he'd come out on top of all this after all.  
  
The door at the very end of the dark hall squealed open on rusted hinges and Mr. Borgin appeared, holding a flat, black rectangular box far out in front of him as if afraid of it touching his body.  
  
" Here it is, here it is!" the greasy little man panted, stumping down the hall, "My apologies for the wait."  
  
Draco peered over his father's shoulder with renewed curiosity as Mr. Borgin set the box on the counter with utmost care. It was made of some sort of dull, black metal and, even from where Draco stood, it seemed to buzz unpleasantly.  
  
" Here it is," Borgin said again, in a hushed voice, "Straight from the manufacturer, done just as you specified and not once touched by human hands."  
  
Lucius reached forward and carefully lifted the lid off. Inside were two objects atop a bed of thick black velvet. One was a large, black leather sheath. The other was a shiny, silver dagger. The dagger itself was bright and new and wholly unremarkable. It was plain and unadorned. The handle was smooth and bare of jewels or eye-pleasing designs, the blade was straight and simple. Its only redeeming quality was that it looked, and was, very very sharp.  
  
Draco was disappointed.  
  
" It looks like a kitchen knife." He muttered.  
  
Lucius snarled and opened his mouth but Mr. Borgin beat him to it.  
  
" No, no, my dear boy." The shopkeeper chided, wagging a finger at Draco, " This is a very special dagger, very rare and very hard to make. Right now it is called a Base because it is pure and empty of all outside influences and magical properties. Once the blade is put to use it begins soaking up the energy around it. If used in Dark magic, it begins to soak up the dark energy, becoming a well of power. The more energy it consumes, the more powerful the blade becomes. In time, if treated correctly, it may become very powerful indeed, then it is called a Subtle Knife."  
  
" Oh!" Draco said in surprise, properly humbled, "I've read about these then. But the one I read about was used against Dark Wizards. It was called _Expletus Flamma_ , the Perfect Flame."  
A low, mournful moan came from behind them and the three men spared Lestrange an odd glance but Serge didn't move or speak again. He continued staring at the dolls. Borgins continued after a moment.  
  
" Yes, yes, the Flame was one of the most powerful Subtle Knives ever to exist." he looked impressed, " Unfortunately it went missing a little over a thousand years ago. I didn't know old Professor Binns taught about it."  
  
Draco smirked, " He doesn't. It was in a book I came across."  
  
Borgins gave Draco a knowing look, "Been snooping about the Restricted Section, have you my boy?"  
  
" Of course not!" Lucius cut in sharply, "Draco was never one for bending the rules." But he threw his son an indulgent glance, apparently pleased that his son was doing just that.  
  
" Certainly not." Borgins agreed quickly, "Now, to activate the knife, all you must do is grasp the handle and it will begin absorbing energy. Be careful with the blade edge, until the dagger knows you it is just as dangerous to you as anyone else. This sheath is specially designed just for this blade, it will always hold it and never allow the blade to cut through. I must warn you that even with excellent treatment the Base has a very high failure rate…"  
  
" I know how the damn thing works." Lucius snapped impatiently, cutting him off, "Hurry up."  
  
" Yes sir, my apologies."  
  
Borgins picked up the sheath and positioned it against the tip of the blade. Then, slowly and carefully, he slid his hand under the velvet and beneath the dagger so that his skin would not touch the knife. Nudging and prodding, he was able to slide the blade into the sheath. He let out his breath when the blade finally slipped in and he snapped the top shut.  
  
" There, all yours." And he put the lid back on the box with a satisfied bang.  
  
Lucius picked up the leather sheath and examined it with a frown.  
  
" Can I carry it?" Draco asked.  
  
His father looked at him shrewdly but then nodded curtly and handed the sheath to him.  
  
" Keep it under your robes and for Merlin's sake don't touch the knife or you'll be sorry."  
  
" Right." Draco muttered, and strapped the thing to his belt while his father paid for the item. He liked the way the blade looked hanging from his waist and wandered over to a mirror to get a better view. He smirked at his reflection, wishing he didn't have to hide the thing under his robes.  
  
" We're finished here." Lucius snapped over his shoulder, "Stop admiring yourself like a blasted woman and lets go. Come Philippe."  
  
Draco shot his father another venomous glance and stalked after him, Lestrange floating along behind them.  
  
" Good day, gentlemen!" Borgin called after them, " Pleasure doing business. Do say hello to Mrs. Malfoy for me."  
  
Lucius didn't acknowledge the man but Draco looked back just as he was stepping out the door. Borgin started and gave Draco a watery smile but Draco had already seen the hate-filled glare he had been sending their way. Draco grinned wickedly, pleased that he had once again caught the two-faced old bastard in the act and sauntered away, making a mental note to find a way to use Borgin's duplicity to his own benefit.  
  
Knockturn alley was fairly empty but Diagon alley was thronging. Draco gritted his teeth. He hated crowds, the push and the pull and the stifling heat of the late summer sun on black robes, like a wool blanket over the whole town. He was okay for a few minutes but then he wanted to start shoving people out of his way. They meandered along like cows, with no consideration for people who were actually trying to get somewhere.  
  
And it's unusually warm out, he thought in annoyance, scowling at the sky and wiping sweat from his forehead.  
  
He followed his father's retreating back and kept a look out for people he knew. He saw several Ravenclaws his age, a group of Hufflepuff third year girls whom he scowled threateningly at, chuckling inwardly when they shrank back in fear, and he caught a glimpse of two sixth year Slytherins and merely nodded at them as they weren't worth talking to.  
  
Narcissa was waiting for them outside Bowley's Best, chatting with two women who looked as wealthy and overdressed as she did. She spotted them and spared Draco a tiny smile, her perfect alabaster mask softening just a bit.  
  
" Oh there he is!" one of the women cried, "Draco, my dear, its been ages."  
  
Mrs. Pucey, Draco recalled her name with a shudder and consciously straightened his shoulders like a man walking into the lion's den.  
  
No, no, must keep Gryffindors out of this. He chided himself wryly.  
  
"What a handsome young man he is, Narcissa." The other woman, Mrs. Bulstrode cooed, "Just like his father." She added as Lucius took her bejeweled hand and kissed it.  
  
" Ladies." He said suavely.  
  
" Now, now, You mustn't flirt Taniya." Mrs. Pucey admonished as Lucius kissed her hand as well.  
  
Draco and Narcissa shared a dry look.  
  
" It was lovely seeing you," Narcissa spoke up, "But I'm afraid Lucius and I have some business to be about."  
  
" Oh, of course, dear." Mrs. Pucey said, "Far be it for me to keep you from important errands! I shall expect you over for tea sometime this week." And she kissed the air above Narcissa's cheeks.  
  
" I'm having a garden party next week." Mrs. Bulstrode said, "I'll be sending you an invitation."  
  
" I look forward to it." Narcissa replied diplomatically.  
  
" Good day, Lucius."  
  
The man nodded.  
  
" Ta." The women called and disappeared into the crowd.  
  
Narcissa let out her breath when they were out of sight, " Like twin tornados those bloody chits." She snapped, but quietly.  
  
Draco grinned. He loved his mother's cold intelligence and disdain for others. He imagined she'd been quite the stuck-up bitch in her Hogwarts years.  
  
"Mr. Borgins says 'hallo'." He told her because he knew it would piss his father off.  
  
Narcissa gave a barely audible sniff while his father stiffened in disapproval.  
  
" Come along then." His mother took his arm to lead him inside, "Lets go see those boots you simply must have."  
  
" Do not coddle the boy." Lucius said sharply and Narcissa's face tightened but she let his arm slide from hers and did not look back.  
  
Draco gritted his teeth.  
  
The purchase didn't take long, though Draco was still smarting under his father's rude commentary. Lucius hadn't needed anything from the shop, so he'd entertained himself by belittling his wife and son. Narcissa had found herself a neat pair of designer dress shoes and Draco was quite pleased with the Dragon-hide boots he found and wore them out of the store. Apparently word had spread that the Malfoy's were in Bowley's Best because the Notts were waiting for them just outside the shop. Quintin Nott was Lucius' best friend and Yasmin and Narcissa got along famously. The four people greeted each other enthusiastically and Draco knew that this was going to end with lunch and drinks in the Leaky Cauldron. That would have been all fine and well, except he didn't see Ryan Nott anywhere.  
  
" Excuse me, Mrs. Nott." He broke in politely, "Is Ryan about?"  
  
" Oh, I'm sorry dear. Ryan purchased his things last week. He's out with his cousins this afternoon."  
  
Damn.  
  
Not only was his afternoon here not finished as he supposed, but he was going to spend the next hour or so listening to boring conversation, while being stared at by Serge and having to be utterly perfect and polite if he didn't want his father to lay into him when they got home.  
  
As he had suspected, Yasmin almost immediately suggested they all eat together at the Leaky Cauldron and Draco, who followed after them, had just resigned himself to his fate when something caught his eye.  
  
He blinked in surprise and then a slow, cruel smile curved his lips.  
  
There, in front of the entrance to Knockturn alley, was Mudblood Granger. He'd recognize that frizzy hair and huge backpack anywhere. She was peering down the alleyway inquisitively, shifting on her feet as if feeling guilty about her curiosity. Draco looked around for Potter and Weasley but the girl seemed to be alone.  
  
He just had to say hello.  
  
"Father."  
  
" What is it?" Lucius asked, stopping to frown at the boy. Lestrange halted as well, gold eyes turning to Draco.  
  
" Father, may I go say hallo to a friend from school." And he grinned wickedly as he looked over towards Hermione.  
  
Lucius saw the girl and went still. Then he smirked, "I suppose."  
  
" Excellent." Draco started towards her only to have his father's large hand catch him around the collar.  
  
" Do nothing rash, boy. There are too many witnesses around."  
  
" I'm not going to _Avada_ her in the middle of a bloody crowd!" Draco spat.  
  
" Just so we understand each other." He let go of Draco who huffed and straightened his collar.  
  
"Play nice."  
  
" _Morsmordre_." hissed Lestrange as Draco passed him.  
  
The boy sauntered merrily over to stand behind the oblivious girl. He glanced around quickly and then shoved with both hands, sending her flying into the alleyway with a startled cry.  
  
Watching, Lucius grinned and Lestrange let out another low moan.


	2. Wasting My Hate On You

" Number 15: mandatory Sex Magic course for all seventh years." Ron Weasley said loudly as he scribbled his suggestion onto the parchment.  
  
The group of Hogwarts students sitting around the table fell over laughing.  
  
They had already been in high spirits before Lavender Brown caught the giggles but then everyone else caught them too and now everything seemed funnier because of it.  
  
" That's a great one!" Seamus Finnigan seemed to be the most excited by that particular suggestion, "Promise me you'll really send this list to Dumbledore!"  
  
" Honestly, Ron!" Hermione cried from her seat in Harry's lap, "Is that all you think about?" she reached over and snatched the parchment and the redhead cried out in protest.  
  
" Number 16," Hermione said seriously, and nibbled on the quill for a moment.  
  
Everyone went silent, waiting for the punchline.  
  
"Change Slytherins official colors to pink and periwinkle."  
  
The group roared.  
  
" Can…can…you see it?" Dean choked out between gales of laughter, "Crabbe…and Goyle…in pink and periwinkle?"  
  
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lavender, Parvati, Padma, Dean, Seamus, Ginny and Neville were all seated around a large table in the dining area of Wicked Wyrm's, a popular hangout for young wizards in Diagon alley. It was mid afternoon and the group had stumbled in out of the heat for lunch, dumping their cargo of books and cauldrons and supplies on the floor. They were now pigging out on ice cream, sweets and Fizzy drinks.  
  
The group had been teasing Harry and Hermione all morning about being Head Boy and Girl and Dean had jokingly come up with the suggestion that since they were the Heads, they should be coming up with ways to improve the school. Hermione had immediately whipped out a piece of parchment and now the group was taking turns writing down their suggestions and laughing uproariously.  
  
Currently Harry was sitting at the head of the table with Hermione in his lap, Ron sat next to them and Ginny sat on Harry's other side, her feet stretched out and settled in Neville's lap. Padma sat next to Ron and Seamus sat next to her. Parvati sat in Seamus' lap, giggling, a sucker in her mouth. Dean sat between Seamus and Neville. Lavender was sitting on the table, eating Dean's sundae and periodically spooning a bit into the boy's mouth.  
  
They were oblivious to the envious stares of the rest of the young witches and wizards in the building who were all listening intently. All of them would have eaten their own wands to be part of the popular group of Hogwarts teens. Some of Ginny's sixth year friends sat at a nearby table watching, green with jealousy, as their redheaded friend leaned her head against famous Harry Potter's shoulder and then gave a giggling shriek as sweet, puppy-dog-eyed heartthrob Neville Longbottom tickled the tops of her sandled feet.  
  
" I've got one, I've got one!" Dean reached for the parchment and Hermione relinquished it, "Number 17: Make Snape teach Ron's Sex Magic course."  
  
A cheer went up from the table, Hermione laughing so hard she choked and Harry whacked her on the back a few times.  
  
" Is that what it's going to be called?" Padma laughed, "'Ron's Sex Magic course'?"  
  
"Let's hope not." Harry grimaced, " Or I won't go."  
  
" Does Snape even know what sex is?" Ron asked.  
  
" I think his hand does." Seamus drawled, wiggling his eyebrows and making a crude gesture.  
  
" EWWWWWW!" every girl at the table cried.  
  
" Well there you go!" Ron sighed melodramatically, "I'd have to teach the class. It is my responsibility to pass on my great wisdom."  
  
Padma rolled her eyes, "Ron, you couldn't teach Sex Magic even if the school slut was whispering all the answers in your ear…no offense Lavender."  
  
It took Lavender a moment to get the joke and then she shrieked and had to be restrained by Dean.  
  
" I wonder what the final exam in that class would be like." Parvati giggled, licking her lollipop suggestively.  
  
" Ooo, gimme a little of that!" Seamus purred and Parvati giggled again, holding the candy over her shoulder so he could take a wet, slurping lick.  
  
" You two are disgusting!" Neville covered Ginny's eyes.  
  
" Cover her ears too!" Ron ordered, suddenly remembering that his baby sister was there.  
  
Hermione reached over and cupped her hands over Ginny's ears. Ginny squealed and swatted their hands away.  
  
" Its too late!" she shouted dramatically, "I'm corrupted!"  
  
" Oh no." Harry moaned to Hermione, "How are we going to explain this to Mrs. Weasley? One afternoon out with me and Ron's teaching Sex Magic and Ginny's mind has been warped!"  
  
" Stop whining Harry. Face your certain doom like a man." Dean snapped with mock severity.  
  
" My turn!" Neville stole the parchment from Dean, "Number 18," he looked around at the group slyly," I think we should have a mascot."  
  
He held up a hand when Parvati opened her mouth.  
  
" I know we all have House mascots but we should have a school mascot to promote school pride and I think our school mascot should be….the ferret."  
  
That brought down the house.  
  
Harry laughed until he cried.  
  
" That's it!" Hermione gasped, wiping tears on the sleeve of her Hogwarts robe,"I'm making badges! I'm making badges to SUPPORT THE FERRET AS SCHOOL MASCOT!"  
  
That set everyone off again.  
  
Hermione was having the best summer of her life.  
  
It had started with her parents going to some dental convention in the states. They were going to be gone for a month and Hermione had convinced them to let her invite Harry, Ron and Ginny over to stay so she wouldn't be alone. It had taken a bit of work to get them to agree but her parents were crazy about Harry so eventually they'd given in.  
  
Hermione had immediately written to her friends and they'd all replied in the affirmative. Harry's letter had been an almost desperate cry of 'Get me outta here!'. Apparently Dudley was driving him mad.  
  
Harry's disgusting cousin had gotten himself a girlfriend just as piggish and repulsive as himself and had been taunting Harry endlessly about not having a girlfriend.  
  
In retaliation, Ginny and Hermione had gone to pick Harry up in Hermione's car. The girls showed up at the Dursleys in muggle clothes, Hermione in a little red dress and Ginny in a spunky emerald green outfit, and Harry had walked away from the gaping Dursleys with an arm around each girl while they cooed over him. The look on Dudley's fat face had Harry grinning like the Cheshire cat. They doubted he would ever tease Harry about not having a girlfriend again.  
  
Harry and Hermione had spent the first part of the summer showing their wizard friends around Muggle London. It was a blast. And once they'd worn themselves out partying the Muggle way, they'd all gone back to the Burrow for some R&R.  
  
It had been the best!  
  
Impromptu Quidditch games, staying up late talking and telling stories while sipping on hot chocolate, whole days spent on wild adventures with the twins, lazy afternoons sunning and swimming in the lake. Ron had even taken them to some hangouts for young Wizards: game rooms where Harry and Hermione learned the wizard equivalent of videogames, clubs, and concerts.  
  
There were nights when Hermione felt a pang when she thought of school starting, which was scandalous, and she was instantly shocked with herself.  
  
As the summer drew to a close, the four of them had invited all their friends to join them in their pre-Hogwarts shopping. The entire group had arrived in Diagon alley together early that morning when it was still cool out and very few people walked the streets. It had taken all morning for them to buy all their supplies from each store but it had been extremely fun.  
  
When the laughter died down at last, Neville patted Ginny's feet before pushing them off his lap and standing up.  
  
" I've gotta get going." He said regretfully, "I promised my Uncle I'd babysit and I'm already going to be late."  
  
Dean hooted, "You're going to babysit??" he asked, "Merlin help that child!"  
  
Everyone laughed as Neville made a rude gesture at the other boy.  
  
" What's everyone else doing?" Hermione asked.  
  
" Me, Padma and Parvati are going to Beryl's Beauty shop." Lavender said, "We have to restock. Are you two going to come with us?" she asked Ginny and Hermione.  
  
" I think I'm going to stick with these two numbskulls." Hermione said dryly, gesturing to Ron and Harry who were fighting over a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, "They might go into a Quidditch shop and never come out."  
  
Ginny also declined," Thanks but I see some of my friends over there. I'm going to go say hi."  
  
" Suit yourself." Parvati shrugged.  
  
" Hey…HEY! Stop that!" Hermione grabbed the bag of Beans from the growling boys, "Behave!" she snapped," Now what's going on with you four?"  
  
" Quidditch shop!" Seamus said instantly and Dean and Ron nodded.  
  
" We plan to get lost in there." Harry told her glibly.  
  
She groaned.  
  
The group split up, hugging and calling goodbyes, Ron roaring after Ginny and her giggling friends that she'd better be at their meeting place at five and Seamus and Parvati kissing each other goodbye passionately and with an indecent amount of tongue action until a passing Ravenclaw shouted for them to get a room.  
  
Diagon alley was now packed and sweltering. Ron carried Hermione piggyback through the streets after Seamus joked that they were going to lose her in the crowd.  
  
The redhead complained loudly about her weight.  
  
" Its just my books!" she denied, blushing red.  
  
" No, the books just make it worse." Ron wheezed, stumbling melodramatically, his face twisted in exaggerated exertion.  
  
She shrieked and whacked him over the head a couple times until he straightened up, laughing and begged her to stop.  
  
Hermione's head shot up as she saw a new store.  
  
" Ooo! Ooo!" she squealed, "There's a new bookshop!"  
  
" Urg! Stop fidgeting!" Ron yelped, nearly tumbling over as she practically jumped up and down on his back.  
  
" Can we stop at the new bookshop?"  
  
" We'll stop there after we're finished in the Quidditch shop." Harry promised.  
  
Hermione groaned, "That could take ages. You stupid boys and your wooden sticks! You know why you're so enamored with them and who has the best one, don't you? Its all a subconscious representation of your…"  
  
" HERMIONE!" Dean cut her off laughing, "Sweet little Hermione, I know you just did not go there."  
  
She stuck her tongue out at him, arms around Ron's neck, "Its true."  
  
" What? What was she going to say?" Ron asked.  
  
That just made Dean laugh harder and Harry blush.  
  
" I think she was going to make some sort of derogatory remark about our shoe sizes." Seamus said airily.  
  
" Our shoe sizes?" Ron asked, confused.  
  
" Never mind, Ron." Hermione sighed, patting him on the head, not seeing the wicked glint in his eye that said he knew exactly what she had been talking about.  
  
It was fun to watch the boys in the Quidditch shop. They were almost giddy, running around and practically swooning over the new gear and the latest magazines with biographies of the best players and detailed descriptions of how to do complex moves. But the shop itself held absolutely no interest to Hermione.  
  
She had tried to take a real interest in Quidditch once. She even had a favorite team now though it was based more on the player's looks then their skill, but she just couldn’t drudge up enough interest to keep track of who was in the lead this year and who was the best player and what were the latest moves. Everything she knew she got secondhand from the boys or from Ginny who actually had managed to become a bit of an enthusiast.  
  
After a good fifteen minutes, she'd had enough, and sought Harry out. She found him and Seamus in the back of the store dueling with Beater's clubs. Hermione had to chuckle as she watched the two try to whack each other.  
  
" Well, Seamus' head is about the size of a bludger." She drawled, "Good thing the twins aren't here. Trained Beaters wouldn’t be able to resist."  
  
The two boys broke apart to face her.  
  
" Why hello, Hermione." Seamus said smoothly, and held out his hand to show her the Beater's club," Like my club? Its long and thick and hard."  
  
Harry whacked the pervert over the head, "Don’t talk to her like that!"  
  
" OW! Son of a bitch!"  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes.  
  
" What's up, 'Mione?" Harry asked, with a last snarl at Seamus.  
  
" I'm bored. I'm going to head over to that new bookstore. You guys can meet me there when you're done."  
  
" Are you sure?" his eyebrows furrowed.  
  
" Yeah, take your time."  
  
" Okay." He dodged a swing from Seamus.  
  
Hermione waved and headed for the door, hoping that neither one of them would get their skull cracked open, or worse yet, break the clubs over their hard heads and have to pay for them.  
  
" I know you weren't leaving without telling me goodbye!" Ron bellowed from somewhere amidst the maze of isles.  
  
Giggling, Hermione ran back through the isles to find him and kissed his cheek before heading out of the store.  
  
There was one week left before school started. Hermione was excited but also determined to make the most of this last week before her last year at Hogwarts.  
  
Her last year!  
  
She hated thinking about it, it made her all teary-eyed and nostalgic. She knew Harry felt the same way she did. He felt lost without Hogwarts. Ron, on the other hand, just wanted to get the hell out of there. She'd already caught him whispering 'no more Snape' under his breath every once in awhile, but then, truthfully, she'd caught herself saying it too.  
  
She frowned.  
  
She tried to respect the man, she really did…he was just such an evil…well, it wasn't mentionable what he was.  
  
As the crowd around her thinned, Hermione slowed and came to a dead stop in front of the entrance to Knockturn alley. She glanced around guiltily, and sucked her teeth thoughtfully.  
  
Hermione was, of course, insatiable curiosity personified. She'd always wanted to know what was down Knockturn alley. She'd never indulged this curiosity though because good girls did not go down Knockturn alley, or so she'd been told. She would always stride by with her nose in the air instead, not even daring to look down there. But she was seventeen now, no longer a little girl, and she'd seen plenty of her Slytherin classmates down there.  
  
She was almost certain there was nothing stopping her from taking a stroll down there and seeing for herself just what was so forbidden about the dank, moldy alley. She was practically an adult, she could handle it. And it would be exciting to explore the alley on her own and then come out and tell Ron and Harry all about it. They'd scold her but they'd be impressed too. They'd probably even want to take a trip down there and explore with her.  
  
She had just decided to do it when something slammed into her from behind and she flew forward with a scream. She landed painfully hard on her hands and knees, gravel digging sharply into her skin and she knew she was bleeding.  
  
" Watch where you're going!" an angry and all too familiar voice shouted.  
  
Hermione went still.  
  
She couldn't believe it. Of all the people to run into her it had to be…  
  
" Malfoy!" she howled, staggering to her feet, and whirling to face him, noting the blood smearing her knees and the palms of her hands, "You jerk!"  
  
The beautiful silvery blond boy's face was dark with anger but cleared in surprise and melted into a cold and vicious grin when he realized who she was.  
  
" Well well, if it isn't Mudblood Granger!" his face darkened once again, "Why don't you watch where you're going you stupid bitch."  
  
" You ran into me, moron! Not the other way around!" she shouted, hands balling into fists.  
  
He gave her a superior smirk, crossing his arms, "It doesn't matter. I'm the pureblood. YOU are supposed to stay out of MY way, filth."  
  
" Not bloody likely! I move for no one."  
  
" Really?"  
  
His eyes narrowed at the challenge.  
  
In a burst of movement, like a striking snake, he lunged forward. With a yelp of surprise she backpedaled, stumbling away from him and further down the alley. He stopped suddenly and laughed.  
  
"You did just fine right then."  
  
She halted, face flaming with humiliation, and gritted her teeth," You're pathetic Malfoy, picking on girls! If Harry and Ron were here you'd be running like the coward you are."  
  
He seemed to ignore her words, the tension draining from his body and he plopped his shoulder casually against the brick wall of the alley, regarding her almost kindly.  
  
"So what's Potter's little whore doing down Knockturn alley all by herself?"  
  
With a start, she realized he'd herded her further down the alley then she liked. She could no longer see the entrance to Diagon alley. She felt a chill but rallied her courage and snarled at him.  
  
" Oh I know!" he continued, gesturing towards a pile of trash and wooden crates, "You're going to take some of these boxes and build Weasley a house so he doesn't have to live in a paper bag anymore. How kind of you." He picked up a scrap of wood, "Or maybe your beaver genes are kicking in and you're feeling a bit peckish." He snapped his teeth at her and laughed, tossing the piece of wood at her.  
  
She stepped out of the way so the wood sailed harmlessly past her, her face flushing even more as his words hit their mark.  
  
There was nothing wrong with her teeth anymore, there hadn't been for years, but he was STILL making beaver jokes. For some reason that made it worse. Like she couldn’t escape her gawky childhood, like some part of her would always be that self-conscious little girl.  
  
Vicious prat! How dare he!  
  
" You're one to talk, ferret!" she sneered at him, " I notice daddy's not here to hold your hand. And you're just jealous about Harry. Everyone knows you're a sodding nancy-boy who likes it up the rear. I hate to break it to you but Harry doesn't swing that way." She gave a cold little chuckle of her own, "And even if he did, he wouldn't go near you, Hogwarts' own STD factory."  
  
His eyebrows shot up and his face flushed a bit but otherwise he didn't react, his expression remained bland. It made her nervous. She didn't like his calm reactions to her insults. The Malfoy she knew was extremely volatile. He should have been screaming and beating his chest by now.  
  
" You'd think someone in your position would have better manners." He said softly, glacial eyes glittering, " After all, bad things happen to little Mudblood girls down Knockturn alley." And he swept his robes away from his hip.  
  
Hermione's heart leapt in her throat when she saw what was hanging from his belt. The sheath was black and she could just barely make out the glittering handle of what was obviously a very large knife.  
  
Real fear was suddenly pounding adrenalin in her veins and her eyes flew to his.  
  
He was bluffing, he had to be.  
  
He looked back at her with a small, cruel smile twisting his lips, his eyes lazy and cold and just a little hungry as he drank in her fear.  
  
Did she honestly have any real idea what Draco Malfoy was capable of?  
  
The answer came to her immediately. Yes, she did.  
  
He was a coward. A whining, pathetic, spoiled, mean, little brat. He didn't have the balls to draw that knife on her.  
  
She gathered her wits, letting her face harden, and gave him a derisive laugh, her smile widening when she saw his childish glee fade to surprise.  
  
" Oh please! Am I supposed to be scared?" she spat, "You are just so many shades of loser, I can't even begin to describe it. Is this some kind of pathetic cry for help? Running after me like this? Trying desperately to get me to pay attention to you because your mommy won't? I can't believe she hasn't committed suicide yet. I know I would if you were my kid. Either that or she's locked herself in with the liquor cabinet to get away from you and your dad. Of course hard liquor is how she got into this mess in the first place."  
  
Rage began to seep through the confusion on his face, "Don't you dare talk about my mother, you filthy muggle bitch."  
  
Hermione's eyes narrowed and she smirked.  
  
Hit a sore spot did I? Ahh, Dracky loves his mommy.  
  
" What about your mother? Besides the fact that she's obviously a brainless trophy wife? Or that she looks more like your father than you do? You do know they're brother and sister don't you? Back home we call that inbreeding."  
  
His face had twisted into an ugly snarl and his hands were clenching but she was on a roll and brazenly she continued.  
  
" Or just plain _white trash_."  
  
" I'm gonna kill you!" Malfoy screamed, hand flying for the knife.  
  
Uh oh!  
  
She scrambled for her wand.  
  
His wand was out before she'd even gotten hers clear of her belt and she realized in shock that he'd drawn it while she was insulting him. She hadn't noticed. He'd been distracting her by keeping his other hand near the knife, which he apparently had no intentions of unsheathing. At least not yet.  
  
" _Accio_ wand!" he yelled and her wand was ripped from her hand.  
  
She cried out and then gaped at him, hands empty.  
  
" Malfoy give that back!"  
  
" Mudbloods shouldn't be allowed to have wands." He said viciously, snarling, showing her perfect, even white teeth.  
  
With a flourish, he brought her wand out in front of him with both hands, paused for just a moment…  
  
No, he wouldn't!  
  
…and snapped it in two.  
  
" Malfoy!"  
  
She couldn't believe he actually did it.  
  
" When I'm done with you bitch, you're going to wish you'd die." He hissed and stalked towards her.  
  
Hermione panicked. He looked mad enough to do her serious damage. And without her wand, she couldn't stop him.  
  
She lunged, throwing herself at him in something half terror, half rage.  
  
Startled, Malfoy could only yell as she barreled into him. She meant only to shove him to the side to give herself room to run, but her momentum carried her into him and they both fell backwards into a pile of boxes and crates. His wand and the pieces of her wand went spinning out of his hand as he scrabbled to brace himself and the upset pile came crashing down on top of them with a horrendous sound.  
  
Then everything was still.  
  
A minute later Mr. Borgin came limping out of his shop to investigate the noise but, besides the overturned boxes, the alleyway was empty.


	3. The Opposite of Teamwork

Something intangible seized him around the middle, a tingling irresistible pressure, and Draco yelled.  
  
The world spun and twisted and then exploded past him in a rush of air, a blur of sound and color and roaring wind. He was only vaguely aware of the girl caught up in the storm with him. His shock receded somewhat as his brain finally processed the familiar sensations that held him captive and he braced himself a split second before everything slammed to a halt.  
  
The force of their sudden stop was accompanied by the smashing of wooden crates all around them and the tooth-jarring jolt of Granger's forehead cracking against his own as she was thrown forward. Light exploded behind his eyes, starbursts, and he laid still for a stunned moment until his senses returned.  
  
The air was warm, but not as warm as it should have been. The wind blew light and sweet. Birds were chirping and the gurgling of water sounded from very close by. There was cold, moist earth underneath him and splintered wood digging into his back. Granger was kneeling over him.  
  
" Wha….what?" Granger's voice, high and choked with shock. Draco bared his teeth and shoved as hard as he could, throwing her off of him. She yelped, as she was hurled to the side and tumbled into the shallows of a stream. She gave another startled cry and scrambled out of the water, one side of her robes soaked. He sat up, eyes narrowed, breathing hard with fury.  
  
She'd tricked him! The frizz-headed freak had tricked him!  
  
" What did you do?" he hissed, almost spitting in his rage.  
  
" Wha..?" she stared back at him with clear, guileless eyes from where she knelt in the dirt, shrugging off her backpack.  
  
Draco surged to his feet, eyes darting around, body tight and coiled as if he expected an attack. But nothing moved around them except for a few blue jays and a lone squirrel. The sun speckled the leaf-blown ground with dappled light. A small stream cut through the clearing and beyond that…trees. Trees as far as the eye could see. Diagon alley was gone. Knockturn alley was nowhere to be seen.  
  
" We're in the woods." Granger said breathlessly.  
  
Way to state the obvious you bloody cow!  
  
In something like a very controlled panic, he patted himself over quickly, and then scanned the ground, looking for his wand.  
  
It wasn't there. It wasn't anywhere.  
  
He turned on her, face pale and livid, " What did you do!?" he shouted.  
  
Her eyes narrowed, "What do you mean what did _I_ do?" she snapped, getting to her feet rigidly and brushing off her skirt and robes, "I haven't done anything!"  
  
" Oh, don't you dare play dumb with me, you bitch!" he stormed over to her and she stiffened but held her ground, looking up at him with her jaw set and challenge in her dark eyes.  
  
He knew this was her fault. She'd done something to bring him here. She must have. His mind was reeling with paranoia. Or not paranoia, he liked to think of it as self-preservation. It wasn't paranoia if they really were out to get you. What was Granger planning?  
  
Had he been set up? Was she supposed to take him here and then leave him? Or was this like the time in sixth year when she'd pranced off alone, making sure he followed, only to lead him right into Potter and Weasley, a very dark hallway and one of the worst beatings of his life? Were Potter and Weasley here, waiting to spring an attack? Waiting somewhere out there in this nice secluded forest where no one would find his broken body. He grabbed her by the upper arms, fingers digging into her skin, "You did something to bring us here!" he shouted.  
  
She jerked away from him, her face flushed with anger, and slapped him hard across the face. The shock of it shut him up, made him blink in surprise.  
  
" Don't you dare touch me," She hissed furiously, " You think _I_ did something? You're the one with the wand!" she yelled at him, " You broke mine remember? Don't blame your utter stupidity on me, you prissy little retard!"  
  
He snarled. She thought it had been a spell? So the little bitch didn't know what a Portkey was, huh?  
  
" You ignorant muggle!" he spat, "A wand didn't bring us here. A Portkey did!" Her eyes widened, "A portkey! But… You dope! I don't have a portkey!"  
  
He stared at her.  
  
She didn't have a portkey?  
  
Quickly, he played through the last few minutes in his head. He had thought she'd rushed him with the portkey in her hand, but now that he thought of it, she'd shoved him with both open palms. Then they'd fallen into the crates…and everything had come crashing down on their heads.  
  
Had there been a portkey in that pile of trash? Had he fallen on top of it? Had it fallen down on them when the pile crashed?  
  
It wasn't impossible that some moron had forgotten their portkey or thrown it away without taking the enchantment off. He'd read about instances of it happening before. But if that were the case then it was a problem easily solved.  
  
His eyes flicked to Granger.  
  
Her eyes were distant with thought but she looked at him then, "You're sure it was a portkey?"  
  
He said nothing, only held perfectly still, not wanting to give away his intentions. " And…you don't have one…do you? So that means it must have been in the crates…HEY!" He'd lunged past her, diving into the pile of wood, sifting through it quickly, touching everything within reaching distance as fast as he could. She must have realized in that instant what he was doing because she darted over and shoved him.  
  
" Don't you dare!" she screamed.  
  
But he ignored her, eyes scanning the clearing quickly.  
  
There was a portkey somewhere around here. Neither one of them knew what it looked like. But whoever found it was going home.  
  
And she could be damn sure that if he found it first, he wouldn't be coming back for her. Once he was home he'd personally dump the portkey in the deepest, darkest hole he could find.  
  
What followed was a mad rush. Both of them tearing through the remains of the crates and digging their fingers through the dirt, touching everything they could. But neither of them found anything.  
  
" Ooh!" Granger moaned, in despair, "It could be anything! A rock, a stick, a…a bead!" Suddenly she stiffened, "Oh no.."  
  
He looked up at her and saw her staring at the stream.  
  
Oh shit.  
  
He'd pushed Granger into the water. If the portkey had been on her, it could have gone into the water as well.  
  
They both scrambled into the stream, splashing, soaking their shoes and the hems of their robes, trying to remember the exact place she had fallen in. The water burbled on, cheerfully indifferent to the pair's growing anxiety. The stream was only about ten feet across and probably four feet at its deepest, but the flow was swift and it was impossible to see the bottom clearly where the shallows splattered over rocks. They dug through the water, overturning rocks and running their hands along the bottom.  
  
Nothing.  
  
In total frustration and with a mounting feeling of certain doom, Draco reared up, " You bushy-headed, Gryffindor skank! This is all your fault! If you hadn't pushed me…" " How can this be my fault!" Granger interrupted him, practically screaming, "You followed me! You bothered me! You made me feel like I had to defend myself! This wouldn't have happened if you weren't such a… a prick!" she flushed slightly as if embarrassed at using such a dirty word.  
  
Pathetic. Not even fifteen minutes and he was already corrupting her.  
  
The thought was vaguely titillating but he was in no mood to enjoy it.  
  
" You needed to defend yourself so you figured the best way to do it was to get us both lost in the middle of fucking nowhere?" he screamed, "Brilliant! I can see why they made you Head Girl! Hogwarts will be charred ruins by the end of the year!"  
  
" Don't you dare threaten Hogwarts!" she shrieked.  
  
" I wasn't threatening Hogwarts!"  
  
" That's not what it sounded like to me!"  
  
" I don't care what it sounded like to you! The fact remains that because of you and your little tantrum, we're both screwed!"  
  
" I had no idea this was going to happen!" she shouted back at him, "And if things had worked out, it would have been YOU stuck here and not both of us!"  
  
He went utterly still, face going pale, "You did plan it….You fucking whore, you planned this!"  
  
" N..NO!" she stuttered, " I just meant I tried to push you down. I didn't mean to fall on top of you!"  
  
" YOU JUST SAID…"  
  
" I SAID IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" she shrieked, "I had no idea there was a Portkey there. And WHY are we talking like this is my fault! You came after me! You pushed me into the alley! How do I know you didn't set this up?"  
  
" Oh yeah!" he snapped sarcastically, "This is my dream, stuck in the forest with a hideously ugly and obnoxiously loud Mudblood chit! I've been planning for years to get you alone and have you annoy the fucking hell out of me."  
  
There was a sudden frightened, speculative look on her face and he rolled his eyes in sheer disgust and frustration.  
  
" THAT WAS SARCASM!" he screamed at her, "If I had a plan to get rid of you, I'd make damn sure it worked!"  
  
" You're really really sick, you know that? I hate you!"  
  
" I hate you more!"  
  
" When we get back home, I'm going to take so many points from Slytherin, they won't be in the running for House Cup for the next thirty years!"  
  
" You think I give a shit about that?!"  
  
" I dunno, I still remember the look on your face at the end of first year. I thought you were gonna cry! I had my camera ready and everything." She sneered.  
  
" You fucking Gryffindors stole the cup that year! It was ours!"  
  
" So you do care!" she mocked.  
  
" Bloody bitch!" he screamed, and sloshed out of the water to flop down on the ground and sulk.  
  
Thirty minutes later they both sat silently on the damp, sandy shore, staring at the rushing water.  
  
" A…are we stuck here?" Granger seemed to be in shock now that the anger had worn off. He ignored her, staring bitterly straight ahead.  
  
His father was probably going crazy about now. Probably cursing and seething and wondering where his no good child had wandered off to.  
  
He was going to get the hell beat out of him when he got back. He'd screwed up again. Like always.  
  
" What happened to your wand?" Granger asked.  
  
" Gone." He snapped.  
  
And you'd better be glad because if I had it right now, I'd be using it on you. He lost himself for a moment in that pleasant fantasy.  
  
" We're lost in the woods and we don't have wands…" the girl said faintly, seemingly to herself.  
  
Draco shivered, suddenly feeling his wet clothes acutely.  
  
It was getting colder…and darker. Night comes early to the forest.  
  
He had to think of something. He was a little more anxious, a little more scared then he liked to admit. He wasn't exactly an avid camper. He considered himself way too civilized. And ever since his little adventure in the Forbidden Forest with Potter his first year, he hadn't exactly been a nature lover.  
  
Sure he'd gone hunting a couple of times with Ryan Nott and his friends, but they'd had every luxury with them. Plus they'd been fairly close to civilization and Ryan's father had been there. Not exactly roughing it. He had no idea what forest they were in now, or even what region of the world, though he was damn sure it wasn't London. There could be monsters here ten times as dangerous as the freaky shit in the Forbidden Forest.  
  
Not a pleasant thought. But then that was a worst-case scenario, wasn't it.  
  
Maybe he was just thinking the wrong way.  
  
There was always the chance that things weren't as bad as they seemed. Maybe they weren't that far from civilization. After all, what idiot would have a portkey to the middle of nowhere? Or where there were really dangerous monsters?  
  
He stood up and began prowling the clearing.  
  
The area did seem pretty neat. Clear of rocks and big sticks, as if someone had been there not too long ago. It was an ideal spot for camping.  
  
He felt a rush of excitement when he found a small circle of rocks surrounding a pit of black ashes about halfway through the clearing.  
  
Campfire remains!  
  
So someone had been here and had built a fire, maybe even stayed the night.  
  
Well, then there had to be other campers! And where there were campers, there were lodges, and little tourist towns with food and bathrooms!  
  
He wasn't sure which direction to go, but if he sort of circled this area, he was certain he'd figure it out.  
  
Because it was useless to stay here. Sitting around on his ass wouldn't accomplish anything.  
  
Without so much as a backwards glance, and with a little more spring in his step, Draco started off into the trees.  
  
" Wh…where are you going!?" Granger called after him in surprise, scrambling to her feet. " Away from you. Nothing stinks like wet Mudblood." He snapped, not looking back. Not caring whether or not she followed.  
  
Scratch that. He hoped she didn't follow.  
  
" But.. but… you'll get lost!"  
  
He said nothing.  
  
" Malfoy! Its going to get dark soon! I think we changed time zones. You shouldn't go exploring!"  
  
" I'm going to find people. There's gotta be a town around here."  
  
" What? We're in the middle of nowhere!" her voice rose in incredulity.  
  
" You don't know that."  
  
" So…you're leaving?!" there was the tiniest note of panic in her voice.  
  
" That's right."  
  
" But everyone will be coming to find us soon!"  
  
Is that what she thought? Poor deluded thing.  
  
Draco grinned wickedly and turned around to see her pretty face strained and anxious, "And just how will they find us?" he asked sweetly.  
  
" There are plenty of spells! A Location charm…" she broke off, remembering that the spell only targeted a person's wand and that theirs were back in Diagon alley, "Um, there's…"  
  
" Finder's spell." He said helpfully, "But that requires blood and hair," he frowned, "which, in all honesty, my parents might actually have, as disturbing as the thought is. But I doubt your folks have a bottle of your blood sitting around in their mud hut, or whatever primitive dwellings muggles live in. They could also try a Seeking charm but then those don't work in magic forests and, if you haven't noticed, this is a magic forest. So you see, I have no choice but to go looking for civilization which I'm pretty sure is right around the corner. Goodbye Mudblood."  
  
She took a couple steps after him, " There's got to be another way! We don't know that many spells, after all. They'll find us!"  
  
" Keep dreaming, Mudblood."  
  
" I'm serious! The Ministry or…or Dumbledore! They'll think of a way to find us." Dumbledore. Every Muggle-born's wet dream. Their savior. Yeah right. Her precious hero couldn't help her now.  
  
" No one's going to come for us."  
  
" You can't be serious about this! You're just going to walk off alone into the woods? Because I'm certainly not coming with you!" her voice turned petulant at the end.  
  
" Oh that's too bad."  
  
She blinked in surprise, " You…you'd really just leave me here?"  
  
" You bet."  
  
" You're crazy!"  
  
He could hear the beginnings of desperation in her voice and smiled, savoring it. She was terrified of being left alone here but she wasn't willing to follow, not that he'd let her.  
  
He continued on his way, ignoring her.  
  
" Malfoy, you complete idiot! You're going to get hurt!" she yelled it more like a curse than a warning.  
  
" I can take care of myself."  
  
She dashed to the edge of the clearing, not daring to go any further.  
  
" Hey! Don't be stupid! We should wait here! When you're lost you're supposed to stay put!" her voice wavered between fury and fear.  
  
" Goodbye bitch! Maybe we'll get lucky and something will eat you!" he shouted back cheerfully, chuckling to himself as he sauntered away, leaving the clearing behind.  
  
" MALFOY!"  
  
His grin widened.  
  
He hoped she was scared, he hoped she was crying.  
  
Stupid worthless female. Stupid mudblood. Sit there and rot.  
  


___________________________________

  
  
Hermione hugged herself, watching her last link to human civilization disappear through the trees in a cloud of poofy arrogance.  
  
She was caught somewhere in a cycle of fury and terror. Part of her was screaming 'Good riddance to bad rubbish!' as she watched him walk away and wondering idly how long before he got mauled or eaten by the local wildlife. Another part of her was screaming that she was now officially alone in the middle of the forest without her wand, without any sort of protection, and that she was going to starve to death or freeze to death or get eaten by wild animals. And she was furious with herself for wishing that Draco Malfoy would return.  
  
But the boy had disappeared.  
  
She let out her breath and turned in a slow circle.  
  
The woods were quiet, serene. Birds were singing, blossoms were floating in the air and a little brown rabbit hopped out of its hole under a knotted cluster of tree roots to get a drink from the stream.  
  
In a different situation she would have been quite enchanted.  
  
What was she supposed to do now?  
  
" Think Hermione." She muttered to herself.  
  
Logic and her upbringing declared it was wisest simply to stay put. She put little stock in the nonsense Malfoy had spouted. Someone would come! She was sure of it.  
  
Surely the person who lost their portkey would report it. Then with Malfoy and her missing someone would put two and two together. It was quite simple. All she needed to do was wait.  
  
But until help came she needed to take care of herself.  
  
She had read a few books about wilderness survival but not many. In reality she'd thought that studying that sort of thing was pointless after she'd gotten her wand. Not extremely farsighted of her and arrogant of her too if she wanted to be brutally honest.  
  
She quelled her rising panic with deep, even breaths. There had to be something around here to help her.  
  
" This is just another puzzle." She said calmly, "Okay, first things first. Malfoy said this is a magic forest. How would he even know?"  
  
That last sentence sounded bitchy even to her, but she hoped he was right. It was true that there were far fewer dangers in a natural forest, but there were also far fewer resources. A magical forest would be fraught with magical plants and animals that she might be able to utilize.  
  
She began exploring the clearing, making note of the campfire remains as she circled the area, her sharp eyes taking in every detail. She circled twice before she finally stopped, hands on her hips with a satisfied smile.  
  
" A ring of Golden Elder trees."  
  
It was true. The clearing had apparently been very specifically chosen. Elder was extremely protective against magical forces and a ring of Elder around the campsite would keep most magical creatures out.  
  
Hermione instantly felt much better. She was not as exposed as she had thought she was. Aragog himself could come scuttling by and he would not be able to get to her. She was incredibly pleased with herself for listening to her instincts and not leaving the clearing with Malfoy.  
  
It proved that this was a magical forest. But she did not think, not for a moment, that Malfoy had known enough to recognize the circle of trees and their significance. He was far too dense.  
  
So how had he known?  
  
She took another look around the clearing. It took her several minutes to see what Malfoy had apparently seen. A small sound gave it away, a little hiccuping 'chirrup' sound. Looking up, she frowned and after several minutes of holding still she saw them. And then she laughed.  
  
" Rooala!" she squealed in delight, seeing the miniature koala-like tree-bears climbing around on the Golden Elders.  
  
Her squeal sent them scuttling up their trees in alarm.  
  
They were tiny, about a handspan tall, with black fur and bright yellow tufts and they fed exclusively on Elder leaves. She'd never seen them in real life. They were much too harmless for Hagrid to ever take an interest in. But they were absolutely adorable. And they were also said to be good luck.  
  
Hermione grinned, "Magic forest, ring of protection. Check. Next, gathering supplies." The only reason Hermione ventured out of the ring of Elders was because it was still daylight out, but even then she moved slow and had to gather her courage to take that first step. It was silly but she was half afraid something would pounce her the instant she left the protective circle.  
  
She circled her campsite, taking stock of all the plants and listing off what their uses were. She was utterly delighted to find a whole bed of Sphagnum moss nearby. Sphagnum was a water purifier. While Hermione had been incredibly grateful for the stream, she'd been a little uncertain about drinking from it. Still, dirty water was better than no water. But now that she had Sphagnum she had nothing to worry about. She gathered several handfuls and rushed it back to her campsite, leaving it near her backpack.  
  
Even more fortuitous was an entire rock wall of firestone at the base of a small slope on the North side of her camp. Several large chunks already lay on the ground and the wall itself had large gouges where she could see someone had dug out chunks to use for building fires. She actually shrieked with joy when she found it.  
  
This clearing was apparently chosen for more than just the protective Elder trees. It was an absolutely perfect campsite. Completely self-sufficient. Perfect for someone who wanted to get away from civilization. Hermione dumped several chunks of firestone next to her Sphagnum moss and turned to go back and gather firewood when a sudden thought halted her in her tracks.  
  
This campsite was well stocked with natural resources. Someone who knew how to survive in the forest could do so easily and do it well. Even the weather was favorable. From the warmth of the day she could tell that the nights were going to be cold but not freezing. If this was such a perfect campsite, with all the natural resources a woodsman needed, did that mean Malfoy was wrong about any people being nearby? Was the person who owned the portkey an expert woodsman who didn't need any modern conveniences?  
  
And what of Malfoy?  
  
She wondered at the confidence that allowed him to go stomping off into the woods alone without any sort of supplies or protection. What was he going to do when it was too dark to see? What was he going to do about food, water, and wild animals? Had he even thought of those things? Maybe he was an experienced woodsman and she just didn't know about it.  
  
Or maybe he was just that stupid.  
  
Hermione shook her head and went back to gathering wood. It didn't matter. Someone would be along soon to collect them.  
  
She gathered a lot of wood, not wanting to have to go out and find more in the middle of the night. With the essentials taken care of, she felt incredibly relieved. Humming she began gathering other things that might be useful to her. She even found a few things to eat, some edible roots that were nice and crunchy and a good two handfuls of juicy Toddy berries. She was almost happy by the time the sun sank behind the trees and she returned to her campsite to build a roaring fire.  
  
Then, as the air cooled, the crickets began to sing and the night animals began to prowl. A few times she saw glowing eyes at the edge of the circle of trees, staring in at her. But whatever animals lurked just outside her circle of light, none could venture in. It was a little frightening, but Hermione, with an air of nonchalance and determination, simply pulled her textbooks from her backpack and began to do homework by firelight, while awaiting her inevitable rescue.


	4. Kill the Messenger

The door to Beryl's Beauty shop slammed open and three teenage girls ran screaming into the streets, disrupting the crowd and causing several people to crash into each other and others to leap out of the way and stare in surprise.

Lavender was too busy wailing and shrieking to notice that the minute she stepped into the sun, the snakes in her hair turned back into purple silk ribbons. Padma didn't notice that the course black fur sprouting in thick patches on her chest and throat turned back into blue glitter sparkles and Parvati was too hysterical to realize that the fur scarf she'd been admiring had stopped squeaking and trying to attack her. In fact, having not been paid for, the scarf had disappeared from around her neck and reappeared back on its shelf in the store.

Inside the shop, three teenage Slytherin girls stood frozen in shocked silence until the leader put her hands on her hips and turned to her friends with a disdainful sniff.

 _" That_ was rude." Pansy Parkinson said as if greatly offended, "They didn't even say goodbye!"

Pansy was a tiny pixie of a girl with a short, sleek cap of honey-blond hair that hung to her chin and narrow, denim-blue eyes that were usually as hard as granite.

" You know those Gryffindors." Millicent Bulstrode dismissed in a lazy drawl, "There was probably a kitten up a tree somewhere. They had to go save it."

Millicent was tall. The top of Pansy's head barely reached her shoulder. She was heavy-set, thick around the middle and solidly built. If she were any shorter, she would have been as round as a bludger, but her height kept her from bulging much in any direction. Her hair was a shoulder length wave of the darkest brown, and her eyes were a startlingly light brown.

" Gryffindors are so noble." Pansy whimpered, wiping a mock tear from her eye.

Blaise Zambini giggled helplessly, " Padma’s a Ravenclaw. Give credit where credit is due!"

Blaise was taller than Pansy but not as tall as Millicent. She was curvy and soft where Pansy was slim and lithe. Her skin had a golden burnish to it that could have been natural or could have been from tanning. Her eyes were large, expressive and liquid black and her waist-length hair was black as raven wing.

Pansy turned sharply, hands still on her hips, to face the counter and the shop's mistress, who lounged gracefully behind it.

"That was extremely entertaining, Beryl."

The gypsy woman gave an elegant shrug, causing the beads and charms on her necklace to make a soft tinkling sound. She was a gorgeous woman with ruby lips, dark bedroom eyes and mounds of curly dark hair.

"No one says such things about Slytherin while I'm around." She purred in a husky contralto.

"You'd think those Gryffindor chits would warn each other about insulting Slytherin while in Beryl's shop." Millicent rolled her eyes.

"Its not just Gryffindor." Blaise said again, "Beryl blasted a couple Hufflepuffs when I was in here last week."

"Its like I said, they’re all against us." Millicent muttered.

"Well, I don’t know about you, but Beryl’s fight for truth, justice and the Slytherin way is a tradition I'm going to miss." Pansy said stoically.

"What's stopping us from coming back next year and watching it happen all over again?" Millicent asked.

"Milly, your logic is impeccable. I commend you."

"Oi! What did I miss?"

The girls looked over in amusement to the skinny young boy swaggering towards them. His close-cropped dark curls were covered by a flowery, yellow and purple bandanna and his hazel eyes were hidden by an outrageous pair of pink sunglasses, several necklaces hung around his neck and a pair of blue sparkle earrings were clipped to his ears. He gave them all a blinding smile.

Beryl laughed softly.

"Oh, for the love of all that's holy! Sky, you moron!" Millicent snapped in disgust, marching over to peel the ridiculous accessories off her younger brother.

"Let's get out of here." The boy demanded with a frown, while meekly allowing his sister to rip the bejeweled necklaces away, "This is all girl stuff."

Pansy laughed, " It's all girl stuff so you decided to try it on?"

"No I didn't! It attacked me." He tugged at the bandanna and shot Beryl an annoyed look.

The gypsy smirked.

"Sure it did, Button." Pansy sighed, shaking her head.

The nickname came from the phrase 'cute as a button'. The little guy was so adorable that Pansy could just die. It wasn't just the bright, innocent eyes or the slightly crooked grin either, it was the sunny personality and sweet, simple mannerisms. It was hard to believe he was Slytherin. Even Professor Snape seemed to think the boy was hopeless but Pansy disagreed. All the qualities were there, they were just hard to spot.

Sky turned his frown on Pansy as Millicent yanked off the sunglasses, "I'm fourteen now. You shouldn't call me that anymore. Everyone will laugh."

Pansy rolled her eyes, " No one will dare. You know hanging out with me makes you ten times as popular as any of the other fourth years. And you know Draco would beat the shit out of anyone he thought was bothering you."

This only made the boy's frown darken to a full blown scowl," I can take care of myself! I don't need you or Draco to protect me!"

" You most certainly do, you ungrateful brat!" Pansy yelled, temper flaring, " Anyone else would kill for what we've done for you! Do you know that last year every single third-year got a midnight dunking in the lake just after Halloween? All the third-years except for you that is! And that's just one thing Draco and I have done for you! You've had sixth-year privileges since your very first year!"

"I know, I know Pansy! I just don't want to have a silly nickname." He whined. Millicent finished peeling the fashion accessories off the boy and cuffed him on the back of the head, "Next time you decide to dress in drag, you make damn sure you match, you little fashion nightmare."

Sky blinked big pretty eyes at her, " I love you, Milly."

Against her will, Millicent's cold hard visage melted into a small, warm smile.

It worked every time.

"Don't you dare try softening me up, brat." But the harsh words were ruined by her smile.

Sky's face immediately brightened with pleasure, proud that he'd made his sister smile, "Lets go! I'm hungry!"

Beryl chuckled again, "Boys his age, they are always eating, no?"

"More like gorging." Pansy drawled, "I'm changing his name to 'Bottomless Pit'."

"Does that mean we're going to eat now?" Sky asked eagerly, practically hopping up and down.

"I don't know. Blaise? Millicent?"

"I'm finished." Blaise said, setting a fancy purse back down on its display, "And food sounds good about now."

Millicent nodded, " We've got our supplies, we've terrorized some Gryffindors, I think we're done. Its getting late."

"Fine then."

The group paid for their items and headed into Diagon alley. They pushed through the crowds roughly, ignoring the yelps and angry glares they received, while arguing loudly and violently over where to eat and periodically throwing in rude comments about what other people were wearing. Per usual, the argument was Millicent and Pansy versus Blaise and Sky. And, as usual, Millicent and Pansy won but Pansy suggested an inventive compromise because she couldn't stand to see Sky pout.

With full bellies and full knapsacks the group called it a night and decided to head back to Blaise's for a sleepover. They were nearly to the Floo Station when Blaise tugged Pansy's robes.

"Malfoy senior dead ahead and he's looking at us." She whispered.

Pansy sneered and Millicent immediately donned her patented 'stone face'.

Malfoy was standing, tall and regal, out in front of the Leaky Cauldron and he was indeed watching them.

“ Miss Parkinson!" the blond man called, "Miss Parkinson!"

"Oh mi gosh, he called me 'Miss Parkinson'." Pansy hissed out of the corner of her mouth, "He wants something. You three stay quiet."

Pansy screwed her face up into a cold snarl and gestured for the others to follow her. She sauntered over to where Malfoy Sr. was waiting and struck an insolent pose with a mocking smile. Millicent stood next to her, her face blank and her eyes empty, not a person but a mindless crony. Blaise hid behind them and Lucius ignored her. Sky smiled at Lucius the same as he smiled at everyone but he might as well have been invisible.

"Lucy." Pansy greeted snidely, "Wonderful to see you. How is Narcissa?"

Lucius' lip curled angrily and Pansy could have sworn his fingers twitched towards his wand but he checked himself. In Pansy's opinion, Lucius and Draco were a lot alike, Lucius simply had more self-control.

"I must say I'm disappointed, Miss Parkinson." Lucius purred sweetly, " I thought time spent with more distinguished families," his eyes flicked to Millicent, " would smooth out your rough edges and might even cause you to develop into a proper young lady. Apparently I was wrong. But then, you know what they say: You can take the peasant out of the lower class but you can't take the lower class out of the peasant."

Ah yes, the Malfoy tongue. Its many extraordinary talents included shredding dignity and cutting through solid steel.

Pansy quickly fought the flush that wanted to rise to her cheeks and sneered at him instead, refusing to give him any kind of embarrassed reaction.

" It isn't wise of you to antagonize your elders." The man continued with the barest hint of threat to his voice, "And it is especially unwise for you to antagonize me."

Pansy gave a light little laugh and tossed her hair, "You're such a kidder, Lucy sweetheart. You know if you do anything to me, it will make my parents angry and you know if you make my parents angry it will make your boss angry. We're your boss' favorite people right now." And she gave him a charming smile.

Lucius looked as if he'd swallowed something foul, but, knowing himself outmaneuvered, quickly changed the subject, " As much as I'd love to exchange pleasantries with you, darling child, I'm afraid I called you over here to discuss other matters."

" Such as?"

" Where is my son?" He said it coldly, almost accusatory.

Pansy felt her jaw drop in surprise and answered with complete honesty before she could stop herself, "I haven't seen the Unholy One since Hogwarts let out for the summer. What's the problem?"

There had to be a problem and it was a big one. Lucius wouldn't have ever bothered speaking to her, let alone asking after Draco, if there weren't a problem.

Lucius looked even more annoyed at her descriptive epithet for Draco, but continued, " The boy was supposed to meet me here over two hours ago. I have repeatedly cast a Calling Charm but he has yet to reply."

The Calling Charm caused an item belonging to the spell-receiver, usually their wand, to light up or make a specific sound to let them know they were being called. The charm was mostly used by parents to call for their children.

"I sent Narcissa home to see if he'd already returned to the mansion but she has just sent word that he's not there."

Flustered, Pansy realized that she should have been angry with Lucius, she should have been furious. After everything he had done, she should have been spitting mad that he was talking to her like this. He'd caught her off guard, was all. She needed to collect her wits.

She crossed her arms over her chest and bought a couple of moments with a delicate snort and a roll of her eyes," Why is this a problem? Draco's a big boy. He knows his way home."

Lucius hesitated, regarding her carefully before continuing, " I left Draco in Knockturn alley with…questionable company."

Pansy went still, her mind flashing back to the end of fourth year and finding Draco unconscious and covered with hex-marks on the train ride home and then back to the year before and the bruises and blood on Draco's face after the Wonder Duo had gotten done with him. Those hadn't been the only times of course, just the worst.

"Tell me you did not leave him alone with Scarface!" she hissed, lowering her voice.

Harry Potter. Hogwarts' golden boy. He wasn't anything special as far as magic ability was concerned, but he had powerful friends and the ability to worm his way out of trouble and that made him dangerous. Reputation, association and cunning were things that, as Slytherins, they understood the power of.

Lucius shook his head, "Not Potter. The Mudblood girl. She was alone."

Pansy felt her eyes widen, "Granger? That may be even worse."

Lucius looked surprised, "How?"

Pansy laughed coldly, "That's exactly what happened last year. Malfoy men don't learn, do they?"

He gave a strained chuckle, " I suppose not. I'd be very grateful if you would be a dear and go to Knockturn alley and collect him."

"Ah, the gratitude of a Malfoy. I suppose this means I'll get to live another day."

Sky hastily turned a snicker into a cough.

Lucius scowled at them and Pansy quickly took a step back.

"We'll just go check Knockturn alley. We'll be back shortly," she looked at the others and jerked her chin over her shoulder to indicate they should follow.

They were silent as they walked away.

"That was just weird." Blaise said finally, with a glance over her shoulder to make sure Lucius was out of sight.

" Why are we doing this?" Millicent asked in a bored tone.

"Because something is definitely going on." Pansy said grimly, "Lucius is worried."

"But if he's worried, why doesn't he go look for Draco himself?" Blaise asked.

Pansy snorted, "That's just it, Lucius doesn't worry about Draco. Lucius worries about Lucius."

"But you think something's wrong with Draco." Sky stated.

“I don't know." Pansy muttered, refusing to meet his eyes.

"The question is why do you care?" Millicent snapped.

Pansy and Millicent glared at each other. If there was one thing the two of them never agreed on, it was the subject of Draco.

There was nothing unusual down Knockturn alley. The group walked the length of it twice, passing several other witches and wizards going about their business.

" This is a waste of time." Millicent complained mutinously, leaning against the wall.

"There's nothing here." Sky agreed.

"I thought for sure we'd find Draco lying half-dead on the ground." Blaise said in what sounded like genuine disappointment.

The others turned withering glares on her. She smiled.

Pansy snorted, "Cast a Location Charm, Blaise."

"Why?" Millicent snarled, "He's not here. Let's go."

“We're not leaving till we find him." Pansy growled so dangerously that Millicent looked away.

"Right!" Blaise chirped and pulled out her wand, " _Expiscor Draco_!"

She was instantly whipped around, wand facing back down the alley, "Oh." She said, voice breathless with surprise, "The spell says he's in Knockturn alley. But we've been all over, he's not there!"

Pansy bit her lip thoughtfully and began wandering slowly down the alleyway. The others hesitated then followed.

"Do you think he's in a shop?" Sky asked.

"No, you idiot. Blaise says he's in the alley." Millicent told him, "If he were in a shop, she would have been able to name it."

Sky shrugged.

"Blaise," Pansy said after a moment, "Cast a Calling Charm, everyone else look for a flash of light or listen for a bell sort of sound."

Blaise raised her wand, " _Arcesso Draco!"_

Everyone went still, eyes darting about the alley, but none of them saw or heard anything.

"Let's walk down the alley. Everyone keep looking."

They hadn't gotten too far when Blaise stiffened with a squeak.

"I hear something!" she said excitedly.

"I hear it too!" Sky walked in a circle around them, listening intently.

There was a faint hum filtering through the air.

Pansy stilled, trying to pinpoint the sound, and Millicent walked ahead of them.

"It's further down here." Millicent motioned them over.

Sky shut his eyes to hear better and walked slowly towards her.

To their left the brick wall of the building came to a corner and moved inwards, making a niche that widened the alley. A stack of splintered boxes and rubbish had been haphazardly mashed into the space there and the boy came to a stop in front of it. Pansy and the others came up behind him.

Sky squatted down, "Its coming from here, under this crap." And he started tearing at the boxes, throwing them out of the way.

" That's weird." Blaise said as she knelt down beside him to help.

Millicent shot Pansy a confused look and saw that the other girl's face was pale with worry.

Blaise and Sky made short work of the pile and then Blaise was standing up with a humming wand in her hand. The noise quieted the moment she touched it, the spell subsiding.

" Here it is!"

Pansy snatched the wand from her and looked it over, "This is definitely Draco's wand. Why…?" she trailed off and looked up at Millicent, " He wouldn't just leave it lying around! Why the hell is his wand in a pile of garbage? Where is he?"

"Calm down." Millicent held up a placating hand, " Maybe Granger got it from him and hid it. It's just a prank. Let's…"

"But where is he?" the blond girl interrupted furiously.

"Maybe he's out looking for his wand!" Millicent shouted angrily, "Just shut up, okay!"

"Hey look." Blaise straightened up from the trash, and held out her hand, "There's another wand here. It's broken."

"Let me see." Sky took the piece from her and examined it while she began sifting halfheartedly through the garbage again to look for the other half. Not finding anything, she brushed her hands off on her robes and stood up.

"Another wand? But whose?" Pansy asked.

Millicent shrugged, "It could just be an old wand someone threw out."

"Maybe its Granger's." Sky said.

"This isn't making sense." Millicent snapped, "Okay, we know they were both down here. We're almost certain they had some kind of showdown. But who won? And why would the winner leave their wand here?"

"And where is the loser?" Blaise asked.

"Granger won." Pansy gasped in realization, "Draco wouldn't have left his wand here if he won but Granger had no reason to take her wand back because it was broken."

"How could Granger win with a broken wand?" Millicent rolled her eyes.

Pansy laughed bitterly, "The same way she won last year."

Millicent raised her eyebrows, "Okay, so then what? Where's Draco?"

"They probably dumped him somewhere."

"Dumped him somewhere?" Millicent cried incredulously, " But Pansy…"

Pansy ignored her, turning to the boy, " Sky, I want you to run as fast as you can and get Lucius. Tell him what we've found."

Sky nodded eagerly.

He had only taken two steps towards Diagon alley when the broken wand in his hand gave a piercing whistle and began blowing red sparks out of both ends. Blaise screamed and Sky yelped dropping the wand in surprise and then catching it again before it fell too far.

" Whoa!"

"What the...?"

Pounding feet sounded behind them and the group whirled around.

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley and a man Pansy recognized as Arthur Weasley came bounding into view, their faces concerned. They halted in surprise when they spotted the Slytherins and their expressions turned grim.

There was a frozen moment when no one moved and the wand in Sky's hand continued its whistling scream and then Ron Weasley took a step forward. He and Potter whipped their wands out and pointed them at the group, their faces twisted with hatred. Pansy and Millicent went for their wands a moment too late and now didn't dare draw them.

"Boys, wait!" Arthur put an arm out to stop Potter and his son.

"That's Hermione's wand." Ron said in outrage, "Where's Hermione, Parkinson?"

"Are you sure that's Hermione's wand?" Arthur Weasley asked, eyes turning to the Slytherins, " _Finite Incantum!"_

The wand stopped shrieking.

_" Arcesso Hermione."_

The wand blazed up again.

Sky opened his mouth, shut it. The three Gryffindors and the Ministry worker turned dark, accusing faces on them.

" _Finite Incantum._." Arthur said again, softly…and drew his own wand to point it at the Slytherins.

" They must have done something to her. They broke her wand." Ginny said.

" We didn't break it!" Sky yelped.

Ron took another step forward, "Where. Is. Hermione."

Millicent took a step forward her face threatening but Pansy shook her head as the boys in front of them gripped their wands tighter.

" We don't know where your little Mudblood girlfriend is." Pansy sneered.

What the hell was going on? Granger was missing too? That didn't make any sense. Pansy was certain Potter and Weasley had something to do with Draco's disappearance. Granger had to be with them, didn't she? But if she wasn't…

Pansy wondered suddenly if Draco and Granger had blasted each other to smithereens and that was why no one could find them.

"Then what are you doing with her wand?" Harry Potter asked quietly, green eyes dangerous.

"We found it."

"Where?" Arthur Weasley asked, his voice calm but decidedly cold.

"It was buried under this trash pile here." Sky said.

"Sky!" Pansy hissed, " Shut up! Let me talk."

"Buried in the trash?" Ginny asked, her disbelief evident as she folded her arms across her chest, "And you four just decided to start digging through the garbage and found it?"

"We were looking for…" Sky started but Pansy interrupted him quickly.

"You should know all about dumpster-diving, Weasley." she taunted, "It's how your mum keeps you fed."

The faces of all three Weasley's reddened and Potter's eyes narrowed in fury.

" Answer the question." Ginny said coldly, with as much dignity as she could muster, "Why did you go digging through the trash?"

"And why are your wands out if you aren't hexing people?" Potter growled.

Leave it to Potter to ask a damning question.

"Our wands aren't out." Pansy replied firmly.

"That girl has her wand out." Ron Weasley yelled, "Don't sit there and tell us we aren't seeing what we're seeing."

"Oh?" Blaise looked startled, she glanced at Draco's wand in her hand," This isn't mine." She pulled out another wand, "This one is mine." And she tucked her own wand away again.

"Then whose wand is that?" Ginny sneered, "Another Gryffindor you jumped?"

"What are you talking about?" Pansy yelled, outraged, "We haven't jumped anyone."

"Hermione Granger has been missing for several hours" Arthur Weasley started but Ron interrupted.

"And now we know why!" he shouted, "You jumped her and broke her wand. NOW WHERE IS SHE?"

"Ron, calm down." Arthur Weasley snapped, then turned back to the Slytherins, "If you can't tell us where Hermione is, I'm going to have to ask you four to submit to a Ministry interrogation."

Millicent turned to Pansy in alarm.

This was getting worse by the second.

What would the Ministry make of this? Mudblood Granger was missing and they were standing in Knockturn alley with her broken wand that they had 'allegedly' found after digging through a pile of trash. Millicent had several illegal items in her bag and Pansy herself had something she shouldn't that didn't actually belong to her, but that wouldn't matter to the Ministry. Blaise had Draco Malfoy's wand in her hand. Oh and Draco Malfoy had just gone missing as well. Now that looked innocent didn't it? The Ministry workers wouldn't think Draco was running from something would they? Or maybe they'd think Pansy and her friends had blasted Draco and Hermione. Either way, Hermione Granger's disappearance was going to be blamed on a Slytherin.

Millicent went stiff suddenly, eyes going wide, "We've been set up." She said quietly, a small ironic smile curving her thin lips, "I'm just not sure by whom."

Pansy gaped at her, "What in the world are you talking about?" she hissed. " Granger and Draco are missing. So unless they ran off together," she rolled her eyes, to show what she thought of that theory," one of them is responsible for the disappearance of the other. Potter and the Weasleys are going to want Draco and the four of us to look guilty. Lucius is going to want Granger to look guilty and maybe us too. Ten galleons says Lucius knew exactly what we'd find down here."

"I don't understand." Blaise's voice trembled.

" You're not making any sense!" Pansy hissed at Millicent.

" Hey!" Ron Weasley shouted.

He and Potter took another threatening step forward, brandishing their wands, obviously itching to cast some curses.

"Are you going to tell us where she is or are we going to call the Ministry?"

Pansy took a step back, eyes narrowing, "We need to get back to Lucius." She hissed.

" We're making a break for it?" Sky whispered with a dark grin, "Cool."

"We stun them and run. Got it? Blaise? Blaise!"

The black-haired girl was staring at Mr. Weasley, at Potter and Ron Weasley whose wands were trained on Pansy and Millicent. Staring at them…or something behind them. _"Expelliarmus_!" Blaise hissed suddenly, pointing Draco's wand.

" Blaise NO!" Pansy gasped.

The blast struck the ground at Mr. Weasley's feet. Mr.Weasley leapt back, raising his wand and in half an instant Ron Weasley, Ginny and Harry Potter were hurling a volley of spells at Blaise.

Blaise dodged the spells, ducking into the garbage filled niche, and started shrieking at the top of her lungs, " HELP!! SOMEONE HELP!! WE'RE BEING ATTACKED!"

Pansy and the others leapt for cover and Blaise kept screaming.

"HELP!! THEY'RE GOING TO KILL ME!!" she shrieked in what sounded like utter panic and terror.

Sky laughed outrageously and joined in, "HELP!! SOMEONE HELP!! STOP IT! STOP IT! PLEASE DON'T HURT US!"

Arthur Weasley must have caught the thread of what they were doing because he was shouting at the Gryffindors to stop the spells. _"Impedimenta!_ " the spell, cast by someone with a deep voice, came out of nowhere.

Arthur Weasley shouted as the spell struck his son from behind, flinging him forward. Potter and the others whipped around in shock, raising their wands.

_"Impedimenta!"_

The spell struck Mr. Weasley, bowling him off his feet.

Coming towards them from the front of the alleyway, wands raised, were Lucius Malfoy and four high-ranking Ministry officials.

"What in the world is going on here?" one of them Ministry workers shouted, sounding horrified.

Blaise burst from her hiding place, sobbing hysterically. She ran past the stunned Gryffindors and threw herself into the arms of one of the Ministry workers. Pansy had to raise an appreciative eyebrow at Lucius when she realized the man was Blaise's cousin, Jinn Wylie.

“They…they….attacked us! It was awful!" she sobbed into the man's robes, "They were going to kill us!"

"Blaise!" the man hugged her tightly, "I doubt they were going to kill you." He said gently, "Everything's going to be okay."

"I…I was so scared!" she peeked out from his robes and gave the stunned Ron Weasley a wicked grin. The boy snarled viciously.

"Will someone explain what's going on here?" a large, balding Ministry worker demanded.

"What are you doing here, Lucius?" Arthur Weasley glared at the blond man, getting painfully to his feet as he recovered from the spell.

"I am looking for my son." Lucius said coldly, "He failed to meet me at the appointed time and I sent his friends," He gestured to the girls and Sky, " to collect him. When they did not return either, I called some friends of my own to help me discover what had become of them. Apparently they did not return because they were being viciously attacked by you, your children and Harry Potter." Lucius sneered at the dark-haired boy who was clenching his fists in hatred, "I can only assume you are responsible for my son's disappearance as well. What are you and your brood doing down Knockturn alley to begin with? Did you lure my son here? Is that why he was down here despite my specific instructions to remain away from this dreadful place?"

Arthur sputtered in outrage, "Don't give me that, Lucius! I know for a fact you come down here at least once a week!"

"Let's hear what the children have to say, shall we?" Lucius cut him off, "Miss Parkinson?"

Pansy stepped out from the niche, fat, prize-winning tears rolling steadily down her cheeks," You haven't found Draco?" she asked with a delicate waver in her voice, "I'm so worried about him!"

"Come off it!" Ginny shouted, "She’s faking it!"

Lucius sent a cold indignant look at the other girl then gave Pansy what would have passed for a kind smile on anyone else," Everything will be okay, dear child. Just tell us what happened."

"Well.." she sniffled, " We were looking for Draco, like you said. A Location Charm said Draco was in Knockturn alley. We..we were scared to come down here but…it was a little exciting." She blushed and looked down at her feet as if ashamed.

"Its okay, Miss Parkinson. We all understand the lure the forbidden has on the youth." A young Ministry worker with long brown hair and a scar over his left eye, said kindly.

"We walked up and down the alley but we couldn't find Draco even though the Location Charm said he was here. So we used a Calling Charm. We heard Draco's wand humming. It was under this pile of trash here. We were trying to figure out why Draco's wand was here when they," she pointed a trembling finger towards Arthur Weasley and the Gryffindors, "Came up and started yelling at us and trying to hex us. I don't know why."

The Ministry workers turned furious gazes on Mr. Weasley.

" That's not what happened!" Ginny cried.

"This is ridiculous, Lucius." Arthur's face was brilliant red.

"They tried to hex us first!" Ron shouted.

"They don't even have their wands out." Lucius snapped accusingly, "But the lot of you do. And we know what we saw."

"Yes, these children were hiding while you threw curses at them." The balding Ministry worker accused.

"Look!" Harry shouted angrily, "Check her wand!" he pointed at Blaise, "She cast a disarming spell at Mr. Weasley! They tried to hex us first!"

Jinn looked down, "Blaise?" he asked.

Blaise wiped her eyes, "Its not my wand, its Draco's, and I didn't try to hex them." She said softly.

"Hmph." A black-haired Ministry worker took the wand from her gently, " _Prior incantum."_

"See!" Harry snarled when the wand proved it had indeed cast that particular spell last.

" But there's no proof that Blaise cast it." Lucius said coolly, "In fact, I see this as evidence that you witnessed the last spell my son cast. A spell he cast in a desperate attempt to fight off the four of you."

" Are you implying that we attacked your son?" Mr. Weasley asked in disbelief.

" You're crazy!" Ginny shrieked.

"You attacked my son the same as you attacked these children." Lucius bellowed at them, "Where is he? I know you've done something to him!"

"We haven't even seen Malfoy today!" Harry shouted back, " We were out looking for Hermione!"

"Hermione!" Ginny gasped, "Oh my gosh, that's it!" she turned to the Ministry workers, "Don't we get a say? Don't you want to hear why we're down here? I think Draco Malfoy attacked Hermione Granger! I think he attacked her and ran off and that's why he's missing! That's why his wand is here and whole and Hermione's is broken!"

"Don't bother, Ginny." Arthur spat, "Lets get some more Ministry officials down here. Some officials who aren't in Malfoy's pocket."

"I don’t know." The black-haired official snarled, " I rather think we have enough evidence to arrest the lot of you right now. You can tell your story from Azkaban."

Harry Potter’s eyes narrowed, " You should be very careful deciding what you’re going to do." he said softly, " You do know I’m followed everywhere I go, don’t you? That means someone has already been sent to get Dumbledore."

There was instant silence.

Arthur Weasley grinned at the look on Lucius’ face, " Dumbledore has a lot more pull with the Ministry these days." he practically purred at the Ministry officials, " You four might be seriously endangering your jobs messing with Harry like this."

The four exchanged glances.

"I think everyone should just remain calm until we get the some more Officials out here." Mr. Weasley said airily, "And the Aurors of course too. They’ll straighten everything out, I’m sure." His grin widened, "I think Moody will be happy to see you, Lucius."

The Ministry workers muttered darkly but dropped their eyes and lowered their wands. It looked like no one was going to be doing anything until the rest of the Ministry arrived. Pansy clapped her hands together, "Great, wonderful," she sneered, "Can the four of us leave now?"

The Gryffindors glared at her.

"I’m afraid not." Mr. Weasley said coldly, "I told you, you are going to have to submit to an interrogation."

Pansy glared furiously at him and then tossed her hair, making a disgusted sound.

"Whatever." she snapped, "That’s perfectly fine since we don’t know anything. Way to waste everyone’s time, Wealsey."

She stalked brazenly past the Gryffindors, knocking into Potter hard enough to make him stumble and giving him a nasty smile, daring him to retaliate. She went to stand next to Blaise and the Ministry workers. Millicent and Sky followed.

"This looks so familiar, doesn’t it." Millicent whispered to her friends, irony heavy in her voice, "Who do you think the Ministry is going to believe? I’m telling you right now, we are in so much trouble."

"I’m just glad Lucius decided to help us out." Blaise muttered.

"He put us here in the first place." Millicent snarled, "He’s using us. And if he doesn’t pull this off, we’re all going down with him."


	5. Kill the Messenger Part 2

Diagon alley was dark and quiet.

The air was still warm, the afternoon heat having baked deep into the cobblestone streets, all of the shops were closed, with the exception of the Leaky Cauldron, which was always open, and moonlight daubed the rooftops with silver highlights. Stragglers swept quietly along as they made their way home, maybe hesitating, but only for a moment, to gawk at the huddle of official-looking wizards that stood murmuring gravely to each other at the entrance to Knockturn alley. On the whole, the atmosphere was calm and relaxing.

Harry Potter was about to go screaming mad.

He stalked back and forth, radiating tension, barely leashed violence. His eyes flicked from the group of Ministry Officials that included Moody, Mr. Weasley and Lucius, to the four Slytherin students sitting across the street from them and then to the moon, watching its slow progress across the sky. Watching their time slowly tick away.

Ginny and Ron were standing with their backs against the wall behind him, Ginny hugging herself and glaring murderously around as if Hermione’s abductor was lurking about somewhere and Ron slumped over in defeat, having used up all his energy hours ago screaming at various people. One of the more daring Ministry workers had actually cast a Silencing Charm on him at one point and nearly got tackled. Ginny had removed the spell instantly but Mr. Weasley had warned them that if Ron didn’t shut up, he’d replace it and make damn sure they couldn’t take it off.

A few hours ago the place had been a madhouse. Ministry officials had blocked Knockturn alley off before they started their investigation, much to the chagrin of business owners, and that had attracted a crowd.

Smelling a story, the Daily Prophet had blasted in like a tornado, snapping a billion pictures and questioning anyone who would stop to talk to them, which never happened to be anyone official. There was no telling what kind of insane story they would print the next day. No one really knew what was going on.

He didn’t even know what was going on.

He hated this.

He hated that no one was doing anything. They shouldn’t be standing around talking! They should be out looking for Hermione. Hell, they should have found her by now. The longer they waited, the worse their chances of finding her became.

He couldn’t understand why they were taking so long and why they were making him wait while they did. It wasn’t like he, Ron and Ginny were doing anything productive. Why not let them go search?

He would have left a long time ago to search for her, with or without permission, but Moody had apparently predicted he would. The first thing Moody did when he arrived on the scene was take Harry’s wand and growl a warning to stay put. It had taken Harry a few minutes to realize why Moody had taken his wand and then he was outraged. Every once in awhile Moody’s magic eye rolled towards him, making sure he was still there.

He wanted to punch the bastard.

It was bitter irony that he got along better with the Barty-Crouch-Moody-Imposter who wanted to kill him than he did with the real Moody who wanted to keep him alive.

Stupid fucking Ministry!

The least they could have done was include Harry, Ginny and Ron in their little discussion. Instead the three of them were kicked to the curb. It pissed him off. They were legally of age and Harry had probably been through more dangerous situations then any of the men there, barring Moody of course. Hell, he’d faced Voldemort on so many occasions it was ridiculous. But that apparently didn’t account for anything with men who considered themselves more able than him because they’d been pushing papers for the last ten years and had successfully made it through their mid-life crises.

His eyes flicked again to the Slytherins.

Three of them looked bored out of their deranged little minds but Pansy Parkinson was staring at him. She was watching him fiercely, with a gleeful little smile curving her lips. As he watched, she looked up with exaggerated attention to the moon, then over to the ministry, then to her three Slytherin companions and then sneered at him, laughing.

He looked back at her emptily, wondering idly at the deep, gut-tearing hatred that rolled through him like searing lava in the back of his skull. He didn’t hate her because she was making fun of him, or because she’d been a vicious, annoying bitch for the past seven years, he didn’t even hate her because she was Draco Malfoy’s girlfriend. He hated her because she was sitting there happily obnoxious and completely carefree while his best friend was probably being murdered somewhere and he was helpless to stop it.

He hated people like her, people who found humor in the pain of others, people who would sit silently, grinning their heads off while someone else was being hurt.

She probably knew exactly what was happening to Hermione.

His fingers itched to take her by the throat and shake the information from her. He and Ron had actually discussed doing just that earlier, but they’d been headed off again. Jinn Wylie was standing sternly over the Slytherins, protecting his dear cousin from the wrath of Harry Potter. Well, they might think they were safe but he could wait. Harry would not forget their part in this. If anything happened to Hermione, he’d kill them.

He hadn’t wanted to believe that anything was wrong when he and Ron couldn’t find Hermione at the bookstore she’d been so excited about. She was Hermione, after all. Hermione Granger didn’t get into trouble. It was against the laws of nature. He figured she’d gone to another bookstore or found a good book and holed herself up somewhere where she could read it comfortably. She’d probably simply forgotten the time. They’d waited around over an hour but Hermione never came. Ron finally questioned the clerk at the counter, a man who knew all three of them, and was told that Hermione had never even been in the store at all.

And that sent alarm bells ringing through both of them.

Ron was instantly panicked and started demanding they find her immediately, but Harry still tried to rationalize Hermione’s absence. Maybe she’d been sidetracked by some friends, or maybe she’d been there but just hadn’t said hello to the clerk. This was Hermione they were talking about, geez! How many ways was there to say it?

Ron wanted to call his father in but Harry calmed him down and suggested they just look for her. So they started searching the bookstores, asking after Hermione, and Ron became more and more agitated. They’d quickly run out of bookstores and started searching other places Hermione might be. They ran into Ginny in a clothing store and told her what was going on. Ginny had absolutely freaked, much to Harry’s surprise and confusion, and that had thrown Ron into an even worse panic.

The three of them had searched Diagon alley from top to bottom before Ginny remembered the Location charm. Ron performed the spell. His wand whipped him around and his face had gone chalk-white as he got his answer.

“ Knockturn alley.” He’d choked out, “ No way!”

Harry felt his stomach clench in shock and disbelief. There was no way Hermione was down there of her own volition. Something was terribly terribly wrong.

He and Ron didn’t stop to think. They just turned and ran as fast as they could.

“ NOO!” Ginny screamed after them, “Wait! It could be a trap!”

They hadn’t listened to her; they couldn’t even hear her through the rush of pounding adrenaline screaming through them. The boys had darted into the alley without hesitation, yelling for Hermione. But the alley was empty. They were still searching twenty minutes later when Ginny came to find them. She’d gone to the Floo Station and called for their dad. She screamed at them for being reckless and forced them to go back to the Floo Station with her to meet Mr. Weasley.

Harry had been in something like a numb haze. All he could think was that he never should have left Hermione alone.

When the three of them and Mr. Weasley had returned to Knockturn alley and found the Slytherins holding Hermione’s broken wand, Harry had been frightened. But when Lucius had arrived and he found out Draco was involved, it seemed like his worst nightmares were coming true. If the Malfoys were involved then Hermione…

Hermione, please be alive.

“ Harry.”

Harry looked over to see Ron straightening. Harry followed his friend’s gaze to the Ministry workers. The group was breaking up. Mr. Weasley was coming towards them, his face pale and haggard and angry.

“ Well!” Harry demanded as Ginny and Ron came to stand beside him.

Mr. Weasley’s lips thinned into a tight line, “ The official verdict is that the two are missing. Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger have vanished.”

“ Uh, we _know_ that!” Ron snapped, “ Don’t tell me they haven’t gotten past that part yet. What are they going to do about it?”

Mr. Weasley ran a hand through his hair, “ They’ll make a statement to the press tomorrow, spread the word, start a full scale search…”

“ But what are they going to do now?” Harry demanded, cutting him off.

Arthur’s face crumpled in defeat, “ They’re going to go home and go to bed.”

“ What do you mean their going home?!” Harry shouted, “They haven’t found out what happened to Hermione yet!”

“ Harry.” Arthur Weasley said gently, “There’s nothing else anyone can do tonight.”

“ There’s plenty they can do tonight! They can arrest Lucius. Or give him Veritaserum. Give Parkinson and her little friends Veritaserum! Have them spill their guts. They’re right there!”

“ It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just go around giving people Veritaserum. There are laws and believe me when I say Lucius knows his rights. And in all honesty, Harry, there’s no real evidence that Lucius or those kids have done anything wrong.”

“ No…no evidence?” Ron gasped, outraged, “And what about Hermione? Are they saying there’s no evidence that she’s missing?”

Mr. Weasley closed his eyes, “Some of them are saying this could be a runaway case.”

“ WHAT?” Ron roared.

“ Oh that makes perfect sense!” Ginny shouted, throwing her arms up, “ What in the hell does she have to runaway from?”

“ They aren’t going to do anything?” Harry’s mind just couldn’t grasp it.

Mr. Weasley rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, “ If they arrested Lucius because Hermione was missing, they’d have to arrest us too for assault on the Slytherin kids.” He gave a bitter laugh, “In fact, there’s more evidence against us then there is against Lucius.”

“ That’s ridiculous!”

“ Are you saying we’re under suspicion?” Ginny gaped.

“ Probably. We’re accusing Lucius. He’s accusing us. It’s his word against ours. There are no witnesses, no evidence. We might have had some evidence against Draco had we been able to check the last spell on his wand. But that Blaise girl erased his last spell when she threw that Disarming spell at me. It was brilliantly done.”

" No…" Ron shook his head, "No, no, no!" he lurched around and kicked one of the wooden crates into the wall, "DAMN IT!"

“ But we don’t have time to waste! We have to find her now!” Harry shouted.

" We can't lose her. We can't…" Ginny swallowed back tears of fury and frustration.

Mr. Weasley sighed heavily, "I'm sorry, but its time to head home."

" NO!" Harry and Ron shouted together.

" There's nothing more we can do tonight. We need to get home and get some sleep."

" Get some sleep?" Harry shouted, "While Hermione's out there alone and terrible things could be happening to her? Just leave her out there?"

Ron threw his head back and started laughing hysterically, "If Hermione were here." He laughed, "She'd tell us exactly what to do, exactly where to look."

" Draco Malfoy did something to her." Ginny snarled, "I say we get some friends and pay a visit to the Malfoy mansion."

Harry whirled on her, eyes narrowing, "I agree."

" The mansion has already been searched." Mr. Weasley broke in quickly, "So has the Burrow."

" Oh I bet mom loved that." Ron muttered.

" We need to go home. Tomorrow we'll start…" he trailed off, head snapping up as someone approached them.

" So they searched your…burrow?" Lucius Malfoy's lip curled, "Not much work overturning a rock, not enough room to hide my son there either."

" What have you done with Hermione?" Ginny hissed.

" The Mudblood?" Lucius smiled, "I can't say I'm sure what happened to her. But then that's what makes this whole situation so exciting, the not knowing." He lowered his voice, "Maybe my son killed her in one shot…or maybe he let her linger."

Harry’s breath hitched as something inside him shattered.

He lunged, blinded by rage, blinded by sudden acid tears, "You twisted son of a bitch!"

Mr. Weasley grabbed his arm but Harry lurched out of his grasp when Arthur tried to intercept the charging Ron and Ginny as well.

Lucius' whipped his wand out but Harry grabbed the blond man’s wrist with one hand and slammed him against the alley wall with the other. Instantly, several people were hauling Harry away from the man and Harry was struggling madly, trying to keep a grip on Lucius' throat.

" You bastard!" Harry screamed, " I'll kill you for this! I'll kill you!"

“ Glad the Daily Prophet’s not around to hear that, you idiot!” wheezed Moody somewhere behind him.

Harry growled and surged forward.

There was scuffling as the men tried to keep a hold of Harry then suddenly two hands were placed gently on his shoulder.

" Harry, I must ask you to remain calm."

" Dumbledore…" Harry was surprised enough that the fight drained from him and he felt himself go limp, breathing hard. When had Dumbledore arrived?

" Violence on your part against Lucius will not help our case against him. I know this is hard on you but I need you to go home for the night and get some rest."

" But Dumbledore, I can't! I can't leave her! She’s… Hermione… She’s my family, she’s… Even…" his breath shuddered, and his voice cracked on his next words, "Even if she's gone, I can't leave her lying out there somewhere."

" Harry," Dumbledore said softly, leaning down to speak close to Harry’s ear, " Hermione is not dead."

Harry stiffened." Hermione…is okay? She's alive? Do you know where she is?"

" Shhh. Shhh, Harry. Unfortunately, I do not know where she is." Dumbledore whispered slowly, "But I know she is alive. I always know when it comes to my students.”

“ The Ministry isn’t helping. They’re not even taking it seriously!”

“ But I am.” He squeezed Harry’s shoulders comfortingly, “Go home and rest Harry. You must trust me and you must remember that Miss Granger is an extraordinary young woman. She is self-reliant, independent and stronger than any of us give her credit for. It is only a matter of time before we find her. I promise."

__________________________________

Pansy smoothed her robes with determined resolve, took a deep breath and knocked on the expansive door to the luxurious Malfoy Mansion.

After finally getting away from the disaster in Diagon alley, She and Millicent had spent the night at Blaise’s. The girls had talked late into the night and slept well into early afternoon.

They found the Daily Prophet and a stack of letters waiting for them when they awoke. The story had made front page: **Hogwarts Students Missing!**

Under the headline were two photographs. One was a large family portrait of Draco, Lucius and Narcissa in expensive dress robes. The photo family looked distressed by the title of the article but the portrait Draco seemed to be enjoying the attention anyway. He gave the girls a cocky smile that oozed charm.

Millicent snorted. Photo Draco stuck out his tongue.

The other was a photo, obviously taken at Hogwarts, of Hermione Granger wearing school robes, one arm around Harry Potter and her other arm around someone, most certainly Weasley, who had been hacked out of the photo by the newspaper editors. The photo Granger and Potter were glaring at the Malfoy family and trying to squeeze as far away from them as possible. Weasley’s chopped arm was waving frantically and trying to keep a hold of Granger.

Disappointingly, the whole article was actually pretty vague, saying only that two Hogwarts students had disappeared from Diagon alley within hours of each other and that anyone with information should contact the Ministry. Granger was listed as Hogwarts’ Head Girl, top student and Harry Potter’s long time girlfriend. Draco was listed as a bright, cheerful Slytherin prefect and the son of the esteemed Lucius Malfoy. The article pretty much painted the two as angels, it didn’t mention that Draco and Granger were long time rivals who hated each other and would kill each other if given the opportunity.

The possibility that they were kidnapped was mentioned but to everyone’s shock there was no actual finger pointing. The article then went on to describe in great detail how devastated Harry Potter was at this latest blow to his already shattered life.

All three girls were furious that the Golden Boy was getting publicity out of Draco’s disappearance.

The pile of letters had been from various Slytherins, all wanting to know what the hell was going on. Pansy wasn’t too surprised when she found among the pile a letter from Lucius addressed to her. The note was short and to the point saying only that he had information about Draco and that she was to meet him that afternoon for tea.

The idea did not appeal to her. She didn’t like Lucius, didn’t trust him. And while she didn’t actually believe he was any danger to her (he really didn’t have any reason to be), she certainly didn’t want to chance it. But in the end, her desire for information about Draco won out. She didn’t tell Blaise or Millicent where she was going, Millicent would tell her not to go and Blaise would insist on accompanying her, but she did owl a note to Sky telling him what was going on.

Button would keep it quiet.

Now she could only wonder what Lucius had found out. If Draco had been found he would have said so…or would he? Had Draco contacted him?

The huge, oak door swung open without so much as a creak and a scraggly House-Elf bowed, eyes downcast and led her into the house. Pansy had only been in the mansion a few times. It was massive and extravagant, immaculate. Privately, she thought it was sort of silly to have such a big house for just three people.

Pansy’s shoes clapped loudly on the hard floor, echoing. The House-Elf led her through a long conference room into a small private study. The room was cheery in a detached, deliberate sort of way and large enough not to make her feel closed in. She noticed a teapot and two cups filled with tea sitting on the desk. Lucius stood behind the desk, looking through some papers. He looked up when they approached.

The House-Elf bowed and squeaked, “ Miss Parkinson, Master.” Before beating a hasty retreat.

Lucius set the papers down and straightened to his full, and impressive, height, eyeing her with arrogant distaste.

Pansy, usually outspoken, felt the words stick in the back of her throat.

Okay, so she practically ran Slytherin House single-handedly and there wasn’t a pack of first-years, a prefect or a professor anywhere who could outmaneuver her and technically she had the biggest band of badasses in Hogwarts at her beck and call…but private meetings with the Dark Lord’s second? This was big-girl time. And she was suddenly wondering if she wasn’t in over her head.

The door slammed shut behind her.

“ How good of you to come, _Miss_ Parkinson. Have a seat.” Lucius ordered.

Uncomfortable, and getting angry because of it, Pansy sat down in the chair in front of her, still at a loss for words.

Lucius sat down in his chair and set one of the cups of tea in front of her.

“ Have something to drink.” He said curtly.

Pansy looked down at the tea then back up at him with her eyebrows raised.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

“ I’m not thirsty, thank you anyway.” She said with exaggerated politeness.

Lucius smiled, sweetly patronizing, “ I’m not trying to hide what I’m doing, you little bitch. We both know what’s in that cup. I just thought it would be _nice_ of me to give you something to mask the taste instead of making you drink the foul stuff straight.” His voice was low and vicious, “You will drink it, or I will make you drink it.”

Pansy went rigid, “You do anything to me and…”

…and that sounded whiny even to her.

Lucius pulled his wand from his robes slowly, with liquid grace and trained it on her, “You’re making this much harder than it has to be. This is about Draco, not you. Drink it now.”

Pansy gritted her teeth, natural stubbornness battling with very real fear.

“ If I have to use the Imperious curse to make you drink it, precious one, I will most definitely make you regret it.” He said softly and raised his wand.

Pansy snatched the cup and took a big gulp. Just drinking the damn Veritaserum was a much more attractive option then being placed under the Imperious by Lucius.

Lucius smiled, lowering his wand, “There now. That was easy.”

Pansy snarled at him, slamming the cup down, “ I hate you.”

The blond man let out a bark of a laugh, “ Now, now, darling child, I am not so bad.”

He stood and strolled to a nearby shelf, gathering some papers off of it, and flopped them down in front of her, “You’ve read the Prophet this morning?”

“ Yeah.”

“ Not exactly helpful, is it?”

“ Never is.”

“ Say _‘yes’_ , darling child, and ‘ _it_ never is’. Complete your sentences. Someone might think you were common-bred gutter trash.” He grinned viciously at his own joke.

“ What the hell do you want?!” Pansy shouted, “ I came here for news on Draco. Not so you could insult me.”

Lucius looked down at her for a long moment, “Do you know where my son is?”

Pansy’s jaw dropped. She was stunned for nearly a minute.

“ You…honestly…did not bring me here to ask me that…did you? You can’t possibly think I kidnapped Draco.”

Lucius chuckled, “Don’t be simple. It’s just that I wouldn’t put it past my son to come up with his own grand scheme and not tell me about it.”

Pansy shook her head in disbelief, “ You give Draco too much credit.” She told him bitterly, “He doesn’t think anything but what you tell him to think.”

“ Answer the question.”

“ NO! I do not know where Draco is! Nor am I privy to any sort of plan or scheme.”

“ Good.” Lucius turned away from her, and there was another moment of silence, “ I’ve been to speak to My Lord. I thought perhaps he gave Draco an assignment and did not see fit to inform me. But…My Lord was incredibly angry to hear that Draco was gone. He has…big plans for Draco, you see. My son is important to him.”

“ So…you actually suspected me…and the Dark Lord?” Pansy asked slowly, confused, “I thought you thought the Gryffindors did it.”

“ They did and I do. But I had to be sure. Suspect everyone, my dear. I would have been a fool not to think Draco might arrange his own disappearance.”

“ You know what happened? You’re sure the Gryffindors did it?” she leaned forward eagerly.

Instead of answering Lucius turned around to give her a searching look, “Where do your loyalties lie, my dear? What about your parents? Who do they follow?”

Pansy balked. This was exactly what she’d been afraid of. This was dangerous ground, deadly ground. Because the truth, either way, was binding, damning. She clenched her fists.

She could hate Lucius all she wanted but there was no help for it. She had to answer and she would just have to live with the consequences of the truth and be damn grateful it wasn’t worse, “ My parents think you and the Dark Lord are the greatest thing since Quidditch. Me…I…I don’t know.”

“ Are you loyal to Dumbledore?”

“ The Slytherin hater? Are you nuts? Of course not.”

“ Then who? Who do you follow?”

The truth? The honest truth?

She closed her eyes in defeat and let the words fall from her lips. “ I follow Draco.”

Lucius’ expression didn’t change. He pondered this for a moment and then nodded, “Do you love my son?”

Pansy’s face flamed. Bastard! How dare he ask that! But her answer was already being wrenched from her. There was no hesitation.

“ Yes!”

Lucius regarded her as if she were a very interesting insect and Pansy knew he was going to use that bit of information to it’s fullest.

“ Fine.” He said at last, and sat back in his chair, “Then to the point, I will be using you as a contact inside Hogwarts. Our Master is concerned that Dumbledore and Potter might attack the children of his other supporters. It is imperative that these children be protected and that the Gryffindors be watched closely.”

“ Wait! Wait just a minute! You never told me how you know that Potter is behind this! And you’re talking like this is long term. We’re going to find Draco soon, aren’t we?”

Lucius’ face tightened, “I fear to know what has become of my son. I know that Dumbledore is behind this. If Potter is not involved, he soon will be. Last night, I overheard Dumbledore telling Potter that the Mudblood was safe. The old man knows exactly what is going on. But I do not know what he wants, if he will frame my son or simply kill him.”

“ And you don’t think we’ll find Draco in time…”

“ It may take time. I have all available resources searching for him but in case we don’t find him within the next few days, I want resources set up within Hogwarts. My sources say that even without Draco, you will control Slytherin this year. I need you to do what you can to protect the students and gather information. If Draco is not found then the boys will probably choose a new leader, even if he’s temporary. I know the boys usually choose their own leader but I also know that none of them will stand against you if you overturn their decision. I will be sending you a list of acceptable boys, and I expect you to choose from one among them.”

“ Alright. I’ll agree to this…on one condition.” She pushed her tea cup towards Lucius, challenge gleaming in her eyes,“ Its my turn. Drink up.”

Lucius seemed momentarily shocked by her audacity but he was ultimately impressed. This was Slytherin politics at its best. It was part of the game that Slytherins loved to play: the grandstanding, double talk and manipulation.

Lucius smirked coldly and raised the cup. He was taking a chance, but then there was always a risk involved in Slytherin politics and the bigger the risk and the more elaborate the dance, the better the player. And Lucius was a master. If she were honest with herself, she’d admit, Veritaserum or no, he was still in control of the situation and he proved it with his next words.

“ I don’t think I need to remind you to be very careful what you ask. The wrong questions will have…devastating consequences.”

And he took a drink.

“ Do you know where Draco is?” Pansy asked after he swallowed.

“ No.” Lucius answered, still smirking.

“ Do you know what happened to Draco?”

“ No.”

“ Do you know where Granger is or what happened to her, who took her or why her wand is broken?”

“ No. Very good, you’re choosing your words wisely.”

Pansy’s eyes narrowed, “Did you know we’d find Draco’s wand and Granger’s broken wand abandoned in the alley?”

Lucius sneered, “Yes.”

“ Did you know the Gryffindors would find us and blame us?”

“ No.”

Pansy blinked, surprised by that, “Fine.” She nodded, not being able to think of anymore questions she wanted to ask, “I’ll work with you to find Draco. I’ll start sending out letters and have a couple meetings before school starts. Don’t worry,” she said when Lucius opened his mouth, “I won’t say anything in the letters to indicate what we’re doing.”

“ Then we have an understanding. Very good. Perhaps you are not as dull and useless as I believed.” He sneered.

“ Does Draco know you’ve been taking stuff from his private potions cabinet?” Pansy retaliated sharply.

“ No.” the Veritaserum forced the surprised Lucius to answer and then he seethed, angry at having been caught off guard.

Pansy smirked.

The blond man growled. “You’ve wasted enough of my time. Come, I’ll see you out.”

Pansy bounced to her feet, all too ready to get the hell out of there. The door opened for her automatically and Lucius followed her out.

Narcissa Malfoy stood up from her seat on the sofa against the wall, her expression strained and angry. Pansy stopped in surprise as the woman hurried over to her and took her hands.

“ Are you okay, Pansy?” she asked anxiously, casting an angry glance at Lucius who looked away and sidestepped them.

“ I’m fine, Mrs. Malfoy, thank you.” Pansy said in surprise.

“ Are you sure? I practically had to strangle the House-Elf to find out what Lucius was up to and…”

“ This is not the time or the place for your woman’s prattle.” Lucius cut Narcissa off sharply.

Pansy and Narcissa glanced at him to see him almost to the door, glaring coldly at them. A dark-haired woman Pansy didn’t recognize, but whom she assumed was one of the Malfoy’s houseguests that Draco had told her about, stood half in the doorway, eyeing them speculatively.

To everyone’s shock Narcissa did not gracefully fall silent.

“ Its bad enough our son is missing,” Narcissa barked back, “ I don’t like that you’re involving other children.”

“ Narcissa!” Lucius looked stunned.

But the blond woman exploded, apparently having suffered too much in silence the past twelve hours, “ You never answered my question about your Dark Lord either!” she shouted, “ Is he or is he not behind this? Damn you, Lucius, you will answer me! Are you gathering more children? Is Pansy to disappear next!” she shrieked.

“ Mrs. Malfoy.” Pansy whispered. She had no special love for Narcissa. They weren’t friends or anything. But Pansy couldn’t help being afraid for her now.

“ Shut up, Narcissa!” Lucius hissed.

The woman in the doorway was grinning excitedly and weaving back and forth.

“ NO!” Narcissa roared, “I have let you raise Draco as you see fit! I have said nothing and asked nothing about your coming and going at all hours and doing that…that creature’s bidding!”

“ You go to far!” Lucius stormed towards her but she darted around the side of the conference table.

“ But I would be a fool to not know what goes on!” she continued, “ And this! This is brilliant! Our son, a pure blood Adonis, is viciously attacked and killed by a Mudblood on Dumbledore’s orders! What better way to get the pure blood families who haven’t chosen sides to follow the Dark Lord? I can hear it now ‘follow the Dark Lord to save your children!’. You and I both know that Dumbledore would never kill a child! But that monster you serve,” her face twisted in disgust, “…that thing…that…”

Lucius lunged around the table and backhanded her with incredible force, sending her crashing to the floor and effectively cutting off her tirade.

Pansy’s hands flew to her mouth. The woman in the doorway squeaked and ducked her head.

“ You..” Lucius stood over Narcissa, trembling in rage, “Bitch…” he hissed, breathing deep to get control of himself, “You stupid bitch. You will shut your fucking mouth or I will shut it for you. This is your last warning.”

The blond man whirled and stormed away. Pansy’s eyes trailed him out of the room and then she darted around the table to the woman on the floor.

Narcissa was sitting up weakly, face dazed. She daubed lightly at her mouth and came away with blood.

“ Narcissa! Narcissa!” Pansy whispered urgently, “Are you okay?”

The woman who had been in the doorway was suddenly kneeling beside them.

“ Narcissa! You poor woman!” the stranger cooed, putting an arm around Narcissa to support her,“ Such a man to hit his own wife!”

“ She’s right!” Pansy snarled, “You don’t need to put up with that.”

“ Come, let me heal that awful wound.” The stranger-woman drew her wand.

Narcissa blinked at the two of them as if just realizing they were there and then smiled tremulously and shook her head gently, “ Oh no, Pansy dear, Margaret, I’m afraid Lucius was in the right and I will keep the injury to remind myself.”

Pansy’s jaw dropped, “Say what?” she squeaked.

“ I was quite hysterical. I never should have spoken like that about our Master. It was terrible of me.” She touched her swelling mouth again, “It’s just that a mother’s instincts go wild when her child is missing.”

The stranger woman looked unconvinced, “I wouldn’t know.” She said lowering her wand slowly.

Narcissa smiled at her, “Well, my worry for Draco has made me half crazy. I would never insult our Master normally. I am such a wretch. Lucius was right to take me to task. I shall have to apologize to him tonight.” She patted Pansy’s hands, “Do not be angry, you will understand when you are finally initiated.”

“ Oh!” the stranger-woman’s eyes snapped to Pansy excitedly, “Will she be joining us?”

“ Of course. Now Margaret, would you be kind and help me to my room? Pansy, dear, can you find your own way out?”

Pansy rose to her feet slowly,“ Yes, thank you…I…I’m sorry.”

“ Hush, child. It was nice seeing you again.”

Pansy hesitated and then gave a sort of half wave and left the women. She found her way back to the front door and was surprised to see Lucius brooding in the shadows near the main staircase. She stared at him for a moment and then let herself out, but paused halfway out the door.

“ You’d better hope that mark on her face fades before they find Draco.” she warned him coldly, “Your son will kill you if he sees it.”

She heard his answer just before the door clicked shut behind her.

“ I know.”


	6. Just a Little Smile

Most large predators are nocturnal.

Who had told him that?

It didn't matter. He was pretty sure they were right. Sure enough that he dared not sleep after the sun sank behind the trees. Sure enough that he kept on the move after dusk and made damn sure he couldn't be cornered. Sure enough that he was almost painfully relieved when the pitch black, star-washed sky began to lighten to milky blue.

It was dawn once more.

The pale-haired boy hiked himself over a huge fallen tree probably five feet in diameter and slid down the other side, scratching his palms on the rough bark. He was filthy, sore and sweat-soaked and he moved with a jerky sort of tension. His eyes never stopped moving, sweeping his surroundings constantly as the forest around him turned pale and misty in the predawn light.

He recognized where he was now and some tightness in his stomach loosened. The familiarity was comforting. He jogged up a ridge, and came to an abrupt slope. Setting his feet, he slid easily down the muddy embankment and landed lightly in the small gully below. The ground here was pebbled and sandy and a creek trickled through, carving a path in the earth.

He dropped his bag to the sandy ground, along with a pile of sticks and forest roughage, a pitifully small chunk of firestone and a freshly dead forest rabbit. Casting one more searching look around his little resting spot, he flopped gracelessly to the ground with an exhausted groan.

It was safe to stop now, even though the sun wouldn't top the mountain for another hour or so. All the really big, nasty things were heading off to bed. Or most of them anyway, there was no accounting for the schedule some of those big bastards kept.

Sleep seemed like an incredibly good idea at the moment. He was beyond exhausted and he'd found the perfect place to take a well-deserved nap just over the gully wall. But it wasn't to be. Not if he wanted to get to his destination before dark. He wasn't exactly certain how much further he had to go, but he had a good rough estimate. He could probably make it before noon, before the sun reached its pinnacle in the sky.

Why weren't humans nocturnal? Weren't they supposed to be the ultimate predators? It was stupid, and at the moment he wanted to take it as a personal insult. If you weren't predator than you were prey.

Draco Malfoy was nobody's prey.

The boy arranged his sticks into a teepee-like pile, with the littlest sticks on the inside as kindling. This was another thing he'd had to learn. He'd had to cast through his memories of camping with Ryan and the others to remember exactly what he'd been told about building a fire. He hadn't really been listening at the time.

Yeah, fire, sticks, ventilation, kindling, whatever, I'll just use my wand, thank you.

His first attempt at building a fire had been abysmal and he'd wasted his only piece of firestone only to get a pile of smoldering leaves that quickly cooled to useless ash. He'd gotten better though.

It was frustrating to remember bits and pieces of useful information, or information that would be useful if he could just remember the rest of it. He'd spent most of the time since he left the clearing cussing himself for not paying more attention in Herbology or, damn it hurt to admit it, Care of Magical Creatures. That dumbass Hagrid's knowledge of really dangerous animals was exactly the kind of thing Draco would kill for at the moment.

The boy finished carefully arranging his sticks, knowing he only had enough firestone for one try, and was enormously pleased with himself when he managed to get a small, steady blaze going. He wrapped his arms around his knees and stared blearily into hypnotic flames.

Three days.

It had been three days since he left the clearing. Three days since he'd gotten to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time. Three days since he'd eaten anything but sour crabapples, the only fruit he could recognize in this stupid place. He had a crabapple tree in his backyard and the hard little fruits were perfect micro-missiles for throwing at people, windows and animals. He'd seen a few other trees and bushes with tempting-looking fruit but he wasn't anywhere near dumb enough to eat from a plant that he didn't recognize. In a magic forest, that was worse than suicide. Poisoning would be the least of his worries.

He'd been traveling nonstop since he left the clearing. Searching for some sign of civilization. It hadn't been easy. There had been few things to eat and only a few places to get water. He'd had to be constantly on the alert for anything suspicious and it was made worse since he didn't know exactly what he was looking for. He didn't know the dangers to be able to recognize them when he saw them. It made traveling in one direction hard. He'd skirted everything that he didn't like: a patch of large bushes with waxy red leaves, a clearing with funny gray dirt, a whole section of forest with trees that had long vines hanging down, swaying in the wind.

At first, he'd planned to travel a day in each direction to see what he could find. But yesterday he'd gone East and found the mountain summit. He'd gone up as far as he could go, until he could survey the land in all directions. And what he'd seen hadn't been comforting.

They really were in the middle of fucking nowhere.

He could see no indications of human civilization. No roads, no cities, no tents or hikers. Nothing. It had really pissed him off. He'd stayed up there for hours, squinting, thinking maybe there were things he couldn’t see or was overlooking. Was that movement over that way? Was that a flash of light? Sunlight off of metal?

Nothing.

Son of a bitch.

So that was it. There was no point in searching anymore. Plan A wasn't working. It was time for Plan B.

He didn't like Plan B. Plan B sucked ass. But there was no help for it. And he was so tired…so incredibly tired that he didn't even have the energy to be mad about it. He gave into it with a sort of dull resignation.

There were no people nearby, no one was coming to rescue him. That meant it was up to him to get his own self out. That meant trekking through the forest for who knows how long.

But hell, he wasn't stupid, he knew the score. He was surviving, but just barely. It was killing him. He was so hungry, hungrier than he'd ever been in his life, and so tired that he knew that sooner or later he was just going to drop. Besides that…he didn't even know which way to go.

He'd be a fool to simply pick a direction and start walking. That could end up with him walking further into the wilderness or walking straight into a canyon and having to double back. He doubted his luck was going to hold out long enough for him to make mistakes like that.

If he wanted to survive he needed all the resources he could get.

…meaning, he needed Granger.

The silly girl probably had the survival skills of a retarded lemming but if there was a way to find out which direction to go, she probably knew it.

The more he thought about it, the better the plan sounded.

She'd tell him which way to go. Maybe she'd even know where to find stuff to eat! And she was the perfect chew-toy for any monsters that decided to head his way. He could escape while Granger…er, 'distracted' them.

The thought made him chuckle.

So he left the summit and had been heading back to the clearing ever since. He was almost there now and hoping that Granger had managed to keep herself out of trouble while he was away. He wasn't really _that_ worried. He was perfectly aware that she hadn't been eaten or rescued…well, as of the day before anyway.

He'd headed North that first night, using the stars as his guide (thank you Astronomy class) then doubled back and headed South. So he'd passed the clearing in the early afternoon of the second day and had stopped by to see if she was still around. He'd seen her doing homework of all things.

The silly bint!

Did she think they had a test on Friday or something? He'd been hard-pressed not to jump out and scare her or something just because he was a bastard, just because he wanted to punish her for being calm and composed, (pissed off, screaming, crying Granger was an exciting Granger) but he didn't want her to know he was around just yet.

If she'd been fine the day before, he was fairly certain she'd still be there today.

So he had a plan. That made him feel better. If there was a plan then things were under control.

There was just one more thing…

Draco looked down at the dead rabbit and stroked its soft fur idly.

Meat. The only thing he could readily identify. He'd been desperate enough this morning to kill the rabbit, but if he wanted the meat, he'd have to skin and clean the rabbit and to do that….

He looked down at the knife sheath at his waist. He hadn't dared touch the dagger. It hung at his waist, probably the most useful thing he had in his current situation, and he didn't have the balls to defy his father.

Lucius would kill him. He'd spent thousands of galleons and waited nearly two years for this knife. He'd been really excited about finally obtaining it too. Most people couldn't tell when Lucius was excited, but Draco knew him well enough to realize his father was practically quivering with anticipation. If Draco ruined the dagger…he couldn't imagine what his father would do to him. But if he didn't get something to eat, he was a dead man anyway. Which would be worse: starving to death or whatever cruel torture his father would devise?

The boy gulped and made up his mind.

Eat now, die later.

For a moment he still hesitated. In a way, drawing the dagger was admitting that this little problem didn't have an easy solution. It was admitting that he might be out in the woods for more than a day or two more. It was acknowledging that this really was a kill-or-be-killed situation.

He glared at the knife in frustration.

His fingers skimmed across the leather for a moment, daring himself. He flicked the latch on the sheath and lifted the leather cover away. The plain handle looked innocuous, innocent…or as innocent as a knife could look.

What had Borgins called it? A Base? What kinds of things did a Base do? Would it even work like a regular knife?

He closed his eyes and took the plunge, grabbing the handle quickly before he lost his nerve and yanking the blade out into the cool morning air. He flinched in that first instant, holding the plain silver knife up in front of his face.

Nothing happened.

He opened his eyes to stare at it in confusion. He wasn't sure what he had expected. A flash of light? Or tingling through his arm maybe? But the dagger felt…ordinary…in his hand.

The boy frowned, instantly and irrationally annoyed.

" Hmph."

Maybe Borgins had ripped them off. High failure rate indeed!

Being male and now possessing a very sharp knife, Draco proceeded to start hacking up everything within arm's reach, gratifying his natural urge for destruction and amusing himself to no end. When he'd satisfied himself that he did indeed have a pointy knife with which to cut things into little pieces, he turned his attention to the rabbit and, after a few moments of contemplation, trying to figure out the best angle of attack, carefully began to skin it.

As he worked, he silently thanked Ryan's father for the lessons, though, at the time, those lessons had made him rather ill. That the great Draco Malfoy lowered himself to be thankful for anything was a testament of just how hungry he was. His hands were shaking and his mouth was watering at the prospect of real food.

Gutting was the worst part. It was downright nasty, and by the time he was finished his hands were cold and wet with blood and bits of entrails. He remembered that he had to be careful not to pierce the stomach or the intestines.

The rabbit's glassy eyes stared at him and he looked away, swallowing hard, before taking a deep breath and getting back to work. He circled the neck and legs with the knife and slit down to the main cut on the stomach, then peeled the skin off. The rabbit fur was pretty cool. He wished he could do something with the pelt, but he didn't know enough to be able to tan the hide, and walking around with a bloody skin wasn't a pleasant thought. He almost decided to bury the entrails and the pelt but then he figured if he just left them there the other animals would take care of it.

He spit the rabbit on a stick he'd found and then shoved the end of the stick into the sand to keep it upright so he could stop for a moment and wash his bloody, tacky hands in the creek. He washed the knife off too, rinsing the soiled handle and running his fingers over the blade, mindful of the sharp edge. The creek water was intensely cold, numbing his hands. That was the only reason he noticed the warmth of the blade. He stilled, holding his hands under the water.

The dagger was warm. Even under the icy rush of water, it was warm.

Draco pulled the knife from the stream to stare at it. He turned it slowly around in his hands, watching beads of water skim down the glittering blade like tears. If the knife was doing anything magical, he couldn't tell just by looking at it. It looked perfectly normal.

" Stupid thing." He muttered, in what should have been a snarl.

It was only then that he realized he was grinning. He was grinning at the knife, a wickedly pleased baring of teeth. He was grinning a grin that wasn't his own.

" SHIT!" he threw the knife away from him, falling back hard on his butt and breathing hard.

What the hell?

He'd been grinning like a maniac and he hadn't even realized he was doing it.

The knife lay innocently against the dirt. Draco growled and watched it suspiciously.

When nothing further happened, he worked up his courage and darted forward to snatch it up and stuff it in his sheath. He touched his face afterwards to make sure he wasn't grinning again. But no, his skin was clammy and his mouth was pulled down in a scowl.

That had been decidedly creepy.

What in the world had happened? Why would the knife make him smile? He'd have to be careful with it from now on. If it could make him smile, could it make him do other things?

He shook his head, too tried to give it much thought and pulled the end of the spit from the ground before flopping down next to the fire to roast his bunny.

An hour later he was sprawled on his back, staring dreamily up at the sky. His stomach felt so much better. Not quite full, mind you, but a whole lot better nonetheless. He'd never tasted anything so good as that unevenly cooked and gamy rabbit. It was a lot freaking better than sour crabapples.

A creeping sunbeam slid over his face and he scrunched his nose, cracking an eye to glare at the sky. The sun had topped the mountains, it was time to go.

From here it was easy to get to the clearing. All he had to do was follow the stream. That wasn't to say it was a straight run. The creek twisted and turned and there were places he had to climb over or under fallen trees and places he had to go up if he wanted to avoid sloshing straight through the water. Getting wet was not something he wanted to do at the moment. Traveling in wet clothes tended to get uncomfortable, his underwear always started to chafe.

He was achingly close to his destination when he jogged around a bend in the gully wall and jerked to a halt, choking back a squeak of surprise. He froze, face to face with a strange animal.

It was the size of a sheep, with a long shaggy coat of purple fur, two tiny bat wings on its shoulders, long legs that looked too skinny to hold it up, cloven hooves, and a long head with a narrow muzzle. Draco didn't dare breathe. He had no idea what the hell it was.

Long, floppy ears flipped up and shiny black marble eyes stared at him. He stared back.

Wait! Didn't someone tell him that you're not supposed to look wild animals in the eye?

He dropped his gaze, wondering if the thing would follow him if he made a break for it.

" Bleeeeaaaaaa!" the thing whined, displaying an impossibly long pointy tongue and waggling it in the air before turning and prancing away.

Draco followed it with his eyes to see the thing bounce further down the gully to where a whole herd of the sheep-things stood around blocking his path like cows on a road. He watched the creatures, still afraid to move, and saw that some were drinking from the stream while others were using their hooves to peel bark off of trees and nibble at it.

He could go around them, he supposed, but the gully walls here were sheer. If he wanted to go around the herd, he'd have to double back.

He glared at the beasts impatiently.

Well, the things weren't meat-eaters and they didn't seem that dangerous. Draco walked cautiously towards the herd, ready to bolt any second, but the stupid-looking things didn't pay him any attention. He got close to one and froze. It continued nibbling, ears flipping around to keep the flies off. It didn't seem to care that he was nearby. He walked past it and it didn't even look up.

Growing bolder, Draco began to wade through the herd and the sheep-things ignored him or stepped out of his way. He reached out and touched one as he passed and it shook his hand off irritably, fluttering its wings, but otherwise didn't look up.

Heh. Stupid things.

He wondered suddenly, deviously, if they were good to eat. The idea was tempting but he quickly dismissed it. It wasn't a good idea to eat strange magic animals anymore than it was to eat strange magic plants. You could end up eating a transformed person or something. He'd read a case a year ago about an animagus, a pig, who'd gotten himself served up as bacon. Nasty.

He'd just gotten to the edge of the herd when a smallish sheep-thing bumped into him and stepped on his foot. He swore and shoved it.

" Get off!" he yelled.

The creature stumbled back, ears erect.

" BLLLEEEEEEAAAAAA!" it squealed.

Every single beast snapped its head up and suddenly the entire herd was looking at Draco.

Oh crap…

" BLLLEEEEEAAAAAAA!" the little one squealed again, waggling its tongue at Draco and flapping its wings.

As one the herd charged.

" HOLY SHIT!"

Draco bolted.

The gully thundered with the sound of pounding hooves chasing him. They were fast, he wasn't going to be able to outrun them. He lurched over a fallen tree, busting his shin hard enough that he yelled. He limped for about three paces and then forced himself into a dead run again. Behind him, he heard the sound of the tree snapping, being shredded under the razor-sharp hooves of the animals.

He wouldn’t survive if they caught him.

Desperately he flung himself at the gully wall, seeing a place where it wasn't as steep as before and tried to scramble up. He nearly slipped twice, crumbling dirt falling into his eyes and coating his robes, but managed to find handholds and clambered to the top and over the ridge. Amazing what you can do when fueled by sheer panic. Panting, he turned around to look down.

The herd stopped at the wall. They milled around uncertainly, staring up at him.

" Eat that you sons of bitches!" he yelled breathlessly.

" BLLLEEEEEEAAAAAAA!"

The beast closest to the edge reared up and braced its front legs on the wall…and started flapping its wings.

No way…

It dug its hooves into the soft dirt and flapped harder. Draco's jaw dropped as the sheep-thing began to climb up the side of the gully, using its wings to help support it. The others followed suit.

He scrambled back away from the ledge as the first beast topped the ridge.

Draco ran.

" BLLLLEEEEAAAA!" he heard the cry behind him and knew they were coming.

He was in trouble. The damn things could fly and he couldn't outrun them. What the hell was he supposed to do?

He glanced back and saw that most of the herd had topped the ridge. The others were pounding after him.

Then it came to him.

Granger!

Wasn't this exactly the kind of situation he'd decided he wanted her around for? If he could just get to the clearing and run past her or something maybe the sheep-bastards would attack her and forget about him.

Draco, you're a genius.

He forced himself to run faster, putting everything he had into it. He burst through the brush into familiar territory and grinned wickedly.

" GRANGER!" he bellowed, "GRAAAANGER!"

_________________

" GRAAAANGER!"

Hermione looked up from her books with a frown.

Perfect, now I'm hallucinating.

But it was a sarcastic thought, half arrogance and half grim pleasure.

I knew he'd be back.

She hadn't of course. She'd half figured he was dead by now.

The last couple of days had been awful. She'd been lonely and frightened and torn with indecision.

Why hadn't anyone come? Surely she should have been rescued by now? Or had Malfoy been right? No, that wasn't possible!

She'd barely slept that first night, uncomfortable on hard, rocky soil. She was exhausted when the sun rose. And when she saw that Malfoy hadn't returned during the night as she half expected him to, she'd been in a panic.

He probably hadn't survived to see the morning, the fool. But what if he wasn't dead? What if he was hurt or something? Shouldn't she go look for him? Impossible! She had no idea where to look.

She stood in the silent, empty clearing and didn't want to be alone. She desperately didn't want to be alone.

Finally she had no choice but to shove Malfoy to the back of her mind, to shove everything to the back of her mind. She couldn’t think about it or she'd go crazy.

'Keep busy' was her new mantra. She'd been okay for a while after that. She'd spent her time exploring and gathering anything and everything that might be useful. She'd made lists of the uses of everything she found and circled the ones that might be helpful. Most of her time was actually spent scrounging for food and telling herself cheerfully that when Ron and Harry came they'd be able to have a picnic or something before they left for home. And when there was nothing else to do, she sat down and did homework.

There were N.E.W.Ts this year after all. She needed to be prepared.

She kept waiting. Ron and Harry would arrive any moment. But they never did.

When the sun rose for the third time and she woke to the stillness of the forest, she had a complete and total breakdown. She finally confronted the full seriousness of her situation. and sobbed into her arms, wishing violently that she were home in bed, or safe in Ginny's room at the Burrow. But tears weren't productive and it wasn't her nature to sit around and do nothing. She pulled herself together with stern determination and began making formal "escape" plans.

She was going to tackle this forest and it wouldn't know what hit it!

Now, hearing Malfoy's voice, even his voice cracking with panic, was like a warm wind of hope.

Hermione dropped her books and climbed to her feet, sparing a thoughtful glance at the pile of supplies that she had organized neatly next to the smoldering campfire. Malfoy sounded like he was in trouble and she didn't want him tearing through here if he was. She scowled, hands on her hips.

" GRAAANGER!"

Alright, alright!

She trotted into the woods, running through several possible plans of action depending on what exactly he'd gotten himself into.

" I’M RIGHT HERE!" she shouted, " OVER BY THE CLEARING!"

There were several moments of stillness and then he came tearing into view like the proverbial bat out of hell, a sea of purple rising up behind him like some kind of woolly flood.

A herd of Shutoeis?

She could only blink at him in astonishment.

" RUN YOU CRAZY BITCH!" Malfoy screamed at her.

That broke her paralysis and she whirled.

" Follow me!" she yelled and darted off into the woods.

This was an easy one, she knew exactly how to take care of angry Shutoeis.

Malfoy was a fast runner. He caught up with her easily, breath coming in short even pants, his eyes wild and his face strained. He stayed level with her though it was clear that he could easily outdistance her if he decided to.

Note to self: never challenge Malfoy to a race.

" Over this way!"

She veered past the clearing and over to the right where there was a huge fallen log next to a large tree.

" Up there!" she pointed as they approached, " Climb up on the log and get in that tree."

" What? But they can fly!"

" Just trust me!"

She saw the look he gave her, the wild look of complete shock laced heavily with suspicion, and thought grimly that it was always hard for someone who couldn't be trusted to trust someone else. He hesitated, a jerky half twist as if he thought about simply ignoring her and bolting off the other direction, but then he lunged towards the fallen log and scrambled up. He ran across the top and fairly leapt into the tree.

Hermione was impressed.

He's like a monkey!

Hermione slowed down and stopped at the base of tree, leaning over to put her hands on her knees and catch her breath.

" Just stay up there!" she panted, and walked over to the fallen log to lean against it.

Malfoy stared at her, fidgeting from his perch on the high tree branch, obviously waiting for her to do something to escape the rampaging herd pounding towards her.

" What are you doing?" he shouted down finally.

" BLLLEEEEAAAAA!"

The Shutoei's arrived bleating and bucking and stomping angrily. The beasts crowded around the tree, looking up at Malfoy and waggling their tongues as they screamed up at him. They completely ignored Hermione.

" What now?!" Malfoy roared, "I'm trapped!"

" BLLLLEEEEEAAAAA!" the Shutoei's responded.

Hermione crossed her arms, "Just calm down. If you just sit down and be quiet the Shutoeis will eventually just forget you're there."

" WHAT!?"

" BLLLLEEEAAAA!" they reared up and stabbed at the tree with their hooves, flapping their wings as they tried vainly to climb the too-steep tree.

" Sit down, Malfoy! And shut up! Don't move, don't talk and they'll forget you're there!"

" How come they're not attacking you!"

Was it her imagination or did he sound disappointed?

She shook her head at him," Don't talk. I'll tell you when it's safe to come down."

Malfoy opened his mouth, struggled with himself and then sagged on his branch with a huff. Hermione wondered idly if he really could keep his mouth shut long enough for the Shutoeis to forget him. It wouldn't take that long, ten minutes at most. But hey, Malfoy didn't know that.

A small feline smile curved her lips and she turned away so he wouldn’t see it. She'd felt a wash of surprised happiness when she'd heard his voice, an almost painful relief that she wasn't alone anymore. But now she was getting mad. He never should have left in the first place! And for the pure vindictive pleasure of it, she decided to see how long she could keep him up that tree.

The Shutoeis near the edge of the herd were already beginning to forget. They hadn't really known what was going on in the first place, they'd simply followed the herd. Some of them wandered over to scratch and nibble at the local plant-life, a few others came over to investigate Hermione.

" Why hello there!" she said in a sweet, baby voice, and the Shutoei's wiggled their ears in happiness as she reached out to pet them and scratch behind their bulging eyes and under their chins.

" Bllea." They nickered at her, one of them nibbling her robes.

" You are so sweet! Yes you are!"

She glanced out of the corner of her eye to see Malfoy glaring at her in righteous fury, chest heaving. He was actually trembling with the effort to stay silent. He looked about ready to explode. She could tell he was dying to dish out some snarkiness, but he didn't dare.

" Traitor." He mouthed hatefully.

Hermione grinned, " Did that bad Malfoy bother you?" she cooed to the Shutoeis, "He's so mean! What a jerk!"

She distinctly heard Malfoy growl.

" I don’t blame you for wanting to stomp on his head. He's got that stupid hair, like he's wearing a shiny helmet and…"

" YOU'RE THE ONE WITH THE FREAKY HAIR!"

" BLLLEEEEAAAA!"

The herd converged on the tree again. Hermione threw up her arms in disgust.

" Malfoy!" She shouted in what she hoped was a fair imitation of anger, " Shut up! Now we have to start all over!"

His face was flushed red and he looked ready to murder her. Hermione grinned hugely but then felt guilty for provoking him and stopped making rude comments about him to the Shutoeis. The Shutoeis were soon wandering around again, not really in a hurry to be anywhere else. The ever-studious Hermione quickly forgot about Malfoy, who continued to glare at her with utter loathing, as she started to investigate the Shutoeis. They were fascinating creatures.

For two hours she examined individual Shutoeis, observed their behavior and tried to determine if they had any kind of herd structure. It was with a start that she remembered that she had Draco Malfoy up a tree. She couldn’t believe the obnoxious blond had managed to stay quiet for this long.

Glancing up she saw him still sitting on his tree branch. He was leaning his forehead against the tree tiredly, his eyes hazy and faraway, and his expression was…soft. He seemed about ready to fall asleep any second.

Now that she really looked at him, she could see that he looked like he'd been stuffed in a blender set on 'pulverize'. His normally shiny, slick hair was loose and wispy and hung about his face, long enough to brush his cheekbones. His hands were dirty and scratched, bleeding in places. His face was paler than normal, scratched and streaked with dirt. His robes were dusty and his shoes were caked with mud.

She stared at him, understanding that seeing Malfoy without his patented hateful sneer was a rare opportunity. He looked…young…vulnerable. Something inside her stirred in pity. She was suddenly sorry that she'd made him sit up there this whole time. He was probably hungry and thirsty and tired. It was really mean of her to do that to him.

She stood up, " Malfoy." It came out much gentler than she meant it to, "Malfoy."

He jerked upright and snarled at her, spitting like a cat.

" You can come down now."

He glared at her hatefully, before he sidled off the branch and climbed slowly down, his eyes following the Shutoeis who ignored him. He lowered himself onto the fallen log and then jumped down to land right in front of her. So close that she actually 'eeped' and stepped back.

He glowered, looming over her, all softness and vulnerability gone. Maybe it had never been there at all.

" How much longer than necessary did you keep me in that tree?" his accused coldly.

She couldn’t keep the guilty surprise off her face and knew he saw it. His lip curled in an angry snarl.

Busted.

" I saved you from becoming Shutoei food, didn't I." She snapped back defensively, turning her back on him and quickly changing the subject, "I take it you didn't find anything out there?"

He said nothing, but she could feel his eyes on her.

"No, you didn't." she answered for him, " You wouldn't have come back if you did."

" You got that right."

She tossed him a smirk, "Actually I think you would have." She said matter-of-factly.

He returned her smirk with one of his own, "You think so?"

" Oh yeah. The two of us disappear and then you come back alone." She smiled prettily, "They'd have you in Azkaban so fast your head would spin."

She saw the disconcerted look on his face and knew the idea hadn't crossed his mind. Surprisingly, he didn't pop out a snappy comeback, he simply turned and walked away. She frowned, taking one step after him.

" Where are you going?" she asked angrily, " Ditching me again?"

" I have to take a piss you nosy bitch!"

She put a hand over her mouth, smothering her giggles. She couldn’t help it.

"Oh you think that's funny? Lets stick you up a tree for a couple hours and see how funny it becomes." He lunged at her and she darted away with a squeal, "That's what I thought." He snarled and stalked away, leaving her alone again.

Bemused, she wondered if she should wait for him to come back or if she should just head back to the clearing. Part of her didn't want to lose sight of him, as if he would vanish if she didn't keep an eye on him. Logic won in the end, reminding her that he'd found his way back to the clearing before, he could do it again. It wasn't like they were very far away.

She stomped back to her haven.

He hadn't even thanked her! She'd saved his scrawny butt and he acted like it was somehow her fault in the first place. What was he going to do now? Would he just leave again now that she'd helped him? If not, what did it mean? Was there no way out of here?

She was sitting by her campfire remains when he came striding back into the circle of trees, his gaze haughty, contemptuous as he scanned the clearing. Looking for what, she wasn't sure.

" How…" he hesitated, then met her curious gaze and just as quickly looked away, "Are there no monsters around here or something?"

Oh.

Ha! I knew he didn't know about the trees.

" This place is protected." She told him, pointing, "These trees…the circle, they protect this clearing."

He nodded, a haunted look in his eyes.

" You should probably get some sleep." She said slowly, disturbed by what she saw in his face.

His eyes snapped to her, suddenly blazing," Don’t tell me what to do, Mudblood!"

She growled at him, "It was only a suggestion. I've been sleeping right there." She pointed to a spot across from where she sat.

After a night of lumpy discomfort, she'd dug up a small spot of earth, sifted out as many of the rocks as possible, filled the hole back up with the soft crumbled dirt and sand, then packed it with as many leaves as she could. It wasn't perfect but it was a lot better than what she'd started with.

"You can use it if you want."

He just gave her a dirty look and muttered something she couldn’t quite catch, though she did hear the words 'Mudblood', 'germs' and 'amputate'.

Jerk.

" What did you do to the Shutoeis?"

" What do you mean?" Grudgingly, he examined her makeshift bed.

" What did you do to make them mad?"

" I didn't do anything."

She blinked, "You must have done something. Shutoeis don't just attack people. They have to be provoked."

" Well apparently they don’t. I was just walking by and they charged."

" That's not possible." She scoffed in disbelief, " Maybe it was an accident or maybe it wasn't really a threat and they just perceived it that way, but you did something!"

" I didn't. I told you, they just attacked."

" Malfoy, you really expect me to believe that?"

" I don't care what you believe, that's what happened." He wasn't even really paying attention anymore, he stretched out in her dugout and tried to get comfortable.

Hermione opened her mouth, shut it. He was so matter-of-fact about it. She supposed maybe it was possible. If something happened and Malfoy just happened to be the only one around for the Shutoeis to blame, they might attack him. But it hardly made sense, especially considering her knowledge of Malfoy. How many times had he pulled some nasty prank in full view of everyone only to vehemently protest his innocence with guileless eyes a moment later?

She knew this, but being who she was, she wanted to believe him. It was her nature to take people at their word.

Malfoy seemed to have forgotten her. He curled up in her little dugout and passed out almost instantly. She watched him sleep, watched the hard planes of his face soften and his scowl fade away. He must have been utterly exhausted.

How had he managed to survive for three days and three nights alone?

It struck her as odd that such a spoiled, nasty little brat would have the determination to spend three days hunting for what he wanted. She had figured that he would be the one to sit on his butt and whine until someone saved him or dragged him out by his ears. Maybe he'd just gotten lost and that was why he was gone for so long.

A light wind stirred the white-blond hair against his cheek.

She pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them, and for a long time she just watched him.


	7. Paradigm Glitch

Unless you're a heavy sleeper, or wearing earplugs, it's impossible to sleep past dawn in the forest. Sound carries well in the mountains and the many varieties of obnoxious forest fowl want to make darn sure you know it. Light sleepers in general are pretty much doomed because these aren't pretty songbirds that welcome the dawn with a gentle trilling tune, but large, croaking crows, screaming, pounding woodpeckers and screeching blue jays. And those are just the non-magic kind.

In a magic forest this problem is severely amplified. Certain varieties of magic bird seem to have a penchant for waking slumbering humans and no amount of earplugs, bespelled or otherwise, will stop the sound. Imagine a sort of non-lethal mandrake cry just horrible enough to make you wish it were lethal. On the other hand, in a certain light, such wakeup calls can be seen as a blessing…because squirrels, chipmunks, gibbertots, bakimies and other small rodent-type mammals are quick to discover such things as a store of gathered roots, berries and fruits.

Hermione screeched and lunged at her already pitiful pile of edibles, sending tiny animals scurrying in all directions and others flying off or disappearing in a puff of smoke.

The sun had yet to rise above the mountains but already every annoying, noise-making creature in the woods was awake and hard at work.

The exhausted girl knelt over the pile panting, and groaned as she assessed the extent of the damage: chewed fruit, scattered berries, dirty paw prints.

Somewhere above her, the nasty little bird who woke her chuckled as if enjoying her predicament. Hermione tossed a furious scowl up into the treetops, then sighed, her anger leaking away. She scooted into a more comfortable position to sort through the pile and toss out the ruined bits.

It wasn't really the animals' fault. Technically this was their food. Food they should be eating to get ready for winter. She was the intruder, a big, nasty greedy intruder eating up all their food.

Hermione sighed again unhappily.

Cute little forest animals or no, she wasn't about to starve herself for them.

She'd been dealing with this problem as best she could since the moment she discovered it was a problem, but there seemed to be no real solution. She'd thought the food pile's proximity to her and the fire would keep the little critters away but they'd grown bolder over the last few days. She tried covering the food with her robe but the chipmunks weren't averse to wiggling under it to get at the pile. There were magic means of warding off the little creatures, but she had yet to find any around. Maybe tonight she'd wrap the food in her robe and hang it from a tree. But what would she use for rope?

Hermione moaned and rubbed her face, scrubbing sand from her eyes.

It was really hard to think when she felt like this. Her brain was all achy and throbby from lack of sleep.

She hadn't been comfortable on the cold, hard ground and then something was always waking her. And she never got to sleep in because of the birds.

She ached. Her body was stiff and chilled and she felt greasy and disgusting. The feel of her own filthy, bedraggled hair on her neck was enough to gross her out.

Scowling, she glanced over at her blond companion and found him sprawled on his back in utter abandon in her dugout, his arms thrown wide and his mouth hanging open. He was the picture of contentment, as if he didn't have a care in the world. Unduly irritated, she hoped nastily that he'd swallowed a few insects during the night.

After collapsing the day before, the boy had slept straight through the rest of the afternoon. He'd started awake more than a few times only to dart a few tense glances around the clearing, mutter something and collapse back into oblivion. When the sky started to darken, Hermione realized she wouldn't be getting her dugout back and quickly dug herself a new one. This one wasn't nearly as good as her first since she worked in the half-light of dusk and the pale orange of firelight, but it would have to do.

So really, it was his fault she was so achy and irritable.

Hermione restocked the fire then huddled up near it to warm herself. She sat cross-legged and held her hands out to the fire, basking in the heat.

Her eyes flicked to her food.

She was hungry. Her stomach felt pinched and twisted and she knew her blood-sugar level was probably low enough to contribute to her already foul mood. But it didn't seem right to start eating before Malfoy was awake to eat his share. It seemed like cheating somehow. If he was this exhausted, she couldn't imagine how hungry he must be.

Well, if she couldn't eat then she wanted to go clean up in the stream.

Hermione chewed her lip.

But what if the animals came back to get the food? It wasn't a good idea to leave the pile alone. And what if Malfoy woke up and panicked because she wasn't there?

No, that was stupid. Malfoy was the one to spend three days alone out there already. He probably wouldn't even notice she was gone. She wasn't thinking straight.

Her brain hurt.

She scrubbed her face with her hands again.

Fine, she'd wait for Malfoy to wake before she did anything. They'd eat, clean up and then discuss how the heck they were going to get out of here. She'd decided last night that it would probably be a good idea for him to tell her about everything he'd seen out in the forest. Maybe there were some clues or something in his observations that she could work with. Maybe Malfoy even had a few useful items on him.

That knife of his would sure be useful.

If the two of them pooled their knowledge and resources they would be a lot better off. With him here, she could finally relax a little. Now there were two people to look for food and watch out for danger and help out with gathering plants and restocking the fire. Malfoy was obviously a very resourceful guy, together they'd have this stupid forest licked.

The thought cheered her a little.

The sun was shining through the canopy and smattering the ground with golden splotches when Malfoy finally stirred. Unlike the day before when he'd started awake as if afraid of what he'd find looming over him, this time he woke with all the leisure of a drugged sloth. His eyelids sagged heavily as they opened and he stared dreamily up at the sky for a few minutes before he slowly turned his head to the side to gaze at her placidly with glazed, groggy eyes.

"Fuck." He slurred sleepily, "It wasn't a dream."

Hermione gaped at him.

He stretched like a cat, yawning hugely before he stumbled unsteadily, almost drunkenly, to his feet and brushed off the worst of the leaves and dirt from his robe. Without another word he turned and walked lazily away from her and off into the woods.  
Startled, she opened her mouth to ask him where he was going but he cut her off.

" Malfoy…"

" Shut up!" he snapped, not even looking back, "Cor, don't need to tell you where I'm going every second of the day. Stupid Mudblood thinks she's my keeper or something..." His voice trailed off as he disappeared into the trees.

Insulted and embarrassed, Hermione couldn't do anything but seethe uselessly.

Didn't he ever take a break?

But then this was Malfoy. This was probably as pleasant as he got.

She wanted to think up something cutting to say to him when he returned, but that would start a fight and she did not have the energy for a drop-down drag-out brawl with Malfoy this early in the morning. She'd put it on her to-do list.

Pick your battles, Hermione. He's probably not even awake enough yet to realize what he's saying.

Yeah right.

It was over twenty minutes later when he came swaggering back into camp looking considerably more awake. His hair was damp and slicked back, though it would never stay that way, and his face was wet and clean, telling her that he'd doubled back at some point and washed up in the stream. He ran a newly cleaned hand through his hair and made a show of looking disdainfully around the clearing before his condescending gaze settled on her and he cocked an eyebrow.

Hermione found herself wondering resignedly if she was going to have to suffer this kind of grand entrance every time he came back to the clearing.

Malfoy loved being the center of attention, even if his audience was a lone Muggle-born.

" Do you have anything to eat?" his tone said clearly that he didn't think she did, but his eyes flicked furtively to her pile of supplies and then back to her.

She recognized the crafty look in them. It was the same look he'd given her just before he'd lunged toward the pile of crates and tried to find the Portkey so he could abandon her in the woods. The look was as clear as his tone. He was just as willing to push her out of the way and take what he wanted now as he had been then.

Suddenly she realized just what an idiot she had been. She should have eaten before he woke up.

" Yes." She told him flatly, "There's food right here. There's a little bit of fruit, some berries, roots. Stuff like that."

To emphasize her point, and to make darn sure she got some breakfast too, she scooted over to the pile and took two pear-shaped fruits and a handful of berries. Her suspicious sidelong glance had him narrowing his eyes and striding over to the pile. He dropped down across from her, swiped up as much as he could, which happened to be nearly everything, and went to sit on the other side of the fire and hunch protectively over his spoils.

He didn't thank her, not that she was expecting him to at this point.

" You sure all this stuff is edible?" he asked, eyeing an ugly root.

" It would serve you right if it wasn't." she grumbled, eating quickly lest he decide he wanted what she had too.

The boy made a face and proceeded to ignore her in favor of the food.

He was just as hungry as she had imagined he would be. He didn't even complain about some of the fruit being bruised, others being hard and the berries beginning to mush. He simply started tearing into his breakfast with relish, sucking the last bit of juice from the fruit cores, crunching the roots and tearing as much of the pulp as he could from the pits…and then tossing them to the side.

" No! Don't leave that lying there!" Hermione yelped, " It'll attract ants and birds and things. Keep the junk in a pile and take it outside the circle when you're done!"

He cast her a withering glance and tossed another pit to the side, "Do I look like a garbage man to you? If you're so worried about it, you clean it up."

Hermione bristled.

That's right! The little jerk has probably never had to clean up his own mess in his life.

" Slob." She spat, " There aren't any House-Elves here to clean up after you! So if you don't want to wallow in your own filth, you're going to have to pick up after yourself. "

" No House-Elves." He agreed airily, popping another cherry into his mouth, "But there's a perfectly capable Mudblood right there."

He gestured grandly to her,

" Its about the same thing when you get down to it. You even look like a House-Elf, what with those bulging eyes and leathery skin…big ears too."

She stiffened a little more with every word, "Why you rotten little pureblood maggot!" she hissed in outrage.

Malfoy threw his head back and laughed, "Don't blame me, you walked right into that one."

Miserably, she realized he was right.

She started to make a spiteful comment about what else the House-Elves could do for him but then quickly changed tactics. He was apparently in a cheerful, if relentlessly obnoxious, mood. If she antagonized him he'd just get mad, but maybe she could get him to talk about something else.

Would he answer her if she asked him a question outright? Better not chance it.

" I can't believe you made it this long without someone taking care of you! What in the world did you do in the woods without your precious House-Elves, Malfoy?" she challenged.

His lip curled up in a haughty sneer, " I can take care of myself. Its not so bad out there."

" It must not be if you came back alive." She replied blithely.

His eyes narrowed, " You couldn't have made it."

Okay, this wasn't working. He wasn't answering her, he was just trying to cut her back. Fine. She'd try asking him.

" What's out there? What kinds of things did you see?"

He gave a long-suffering sigh, as if she were an annoying younger sibling badgering him with stupid questions but then began to tell her in dramatic exaggeration about his trip. Hermione was delighted when he went into detail and silently cheered the Malfoy trait of loving to hear themselves speak.

" Nothing?" she asked when he was done.

" Absolutely nothing." He finished glumly, "Just trees and more trees and dirt and more dirt."

He seemed to lose interest in the topic suddenly and gestured to her pile of supplies, probably hoping there was more food in there somewhere.

" What's all that stuff?"

" Oh, I've been gathering bits of all the magical plants I've been able recognize. Most of them are things we've used in Potions or studied in Herbology. Others are things I've read about. I'm hoping they'll be useful somehow. I've made lists of possible spells or potions or poultices they can be used in. This one is laurel."

She pointed, "I've got a pile of tansy and some yarrow over here. This is sphagnum, you put it under your tongue before you drink spring water, it strains out the impurities, then you spit it out. That way you don't get sick…"

She paused for a moment at his startled expression. He'd been opening his mouth, to say something mean judging by his expression, but when she'd said that last part he froze. She realized with a kind of patient exasperation that he'd probably been drinking the water straight.

Well, she thought dryly, he's still alive. I guess the water is safe.

Taking advantage of his panicked silence, she continued her lecture, " This is vervain and this is hazel wood." She picked up a forked stick, "You use hazel to divine water."

Malfoy pounced, " Why would you need to divine water? There's water right there."

Hermione opened her mouth, shut it and then settled for glaring at him. He knew why, he just wanted to rub it in.

He grinned when she didn't speak, "So, you've finally accepted that no one is coming for us. The great all-knowing Granger was wrong about something and she knows it. What would the professors say!" he mocked, "Well, good. I'm glad you've finally figured it out. I was certain I was going to have to drag you from this clearing."

She sniffed scornfully, "What's that? An invitation?"

" Yep. You are cordially invited to get me the fuck out of here. You should be grateful that I've decided that you're useful, otherwise I would have just left you."

A slow burning anger was starting in the pit of her stomach, rising to heat her cheeks, "Let me guess." she said sweetly, gritting her teeth, "You want me around so I can find food for you, clean up after you and save your butt whenever you get into trouble."

" That's about the size of it. But first you need to figure out which way we're going."

Hermione flew to her feet, hissing, "You worthless little leech. If I go anywhere, it will most certainly NOT be with you!" She didn't care if it was ridiculous, at that moment she would have willing marched blindly into the wilderness alone rather than take him along.

Malfoy's face flickered with annoyance but then he chuckled, "Like you can stop me. When you leave, I'll just follow. Besides, you said it yourself, the two of us disappeared together and if just one of us comes back the Ministry's going to pose a lot of uncomfortable questions."

Fuming, she struggled with her temper, wanting to haul back and punch him.

He was right, of course. She was leaving anyway and she couldn't very well stop him if he decided to follow. He had already proved that he could survive without her if he really wanted to. Could she survive without him?

But then, it wasn't like she could really expect help from him. He was using her, like some sort of albino parasite, with all the indifference of a tapeworm for its host.

No, that wasn't right.

He wasn't indifferent to her. Heck, he was probably actively plotting against her right this moment. She glanced at him and found him smirking with cold satisfaction. All he needed was a cat and a leather armchair and it would be just like one of those old movies.

She had wanted to believe that the two of them would work together to get out of the forest, that they could put their differences aside until they were safe. But now she wasn't so sure that was at all what Malfoy wanted.

" You're right, I can't stop you." She spat, the truth bitter in her mouth, "But if you're coming with me, you'd better pull your own weight. Now, do you have anything useful on you at all?"

" Useful?" he asked languidly, flopping down on his side beside the fire, propping his chin on his hand, for all the world like a big cat.

" All I have is my backpack, my spell books, a few quills, a notebook and a few other completely useless things."

Malfoy gave a half shrug, " No, I don't have anything useful."

" What about that knife? That's definitely useful."

His eyes darkened and he sat up, hand jumping protectively to his waist, "No way! This is my father's knife. It's a wizard's knife and not meant for the hands of filthy Muggles. If you so much as breathe on it, I'll beat the shit out of you."

Hermione's eyes widened and she took a step back automatically, feeling a small stir of alarm at the menace in his voice. But then she caught herself and put her hands on her hips, "If you're going to be a baby about it, fine. You'll just have to do all the chopping."

" I mean it. You touch it and I'll make you wish you hadn't."

" Drop it, Malfoy. No one cares. Do you have anything else?"

" Not a thing." His face was bland.

Hermione let out a disappointed breath, "Shoot. Then I don't know what else to do. Without our wands we're limited in our options. I've been thinking about it since we got here and our best bet was a fairly easy potion that can be used to find objects. If we gave it a manmade object to find, it could be used to lead us to people. But I don't have anything to brew the potion in."

" You can do that?"

" I've got everything I need. The potion was created to be simple. I was thinking we could make it find books or quills or something."

" Couldn't you make it find people?"

" No. If you smeared it on a person all it would ever do is find that person. Never anyone else."

" Hmm. You know… I think…"

Malfoy reached into his robe and pulled out a small, flat, black satin pouch. He opened it carefully, reached in, nearly his whole arm disappearing inside, felt around a bit…

…and pulled out a small cauldron.

Hermione's jaw dropped. Malfoy tossed the cauldron onto the ground at her feet, where it fell with a clank and rolled on its side.

" Could you use that?"

Hermione sputtered," You…you said…you said you didn't have anything useful!"

" I forgot I had this." He said easily with a small innocent smile, "Its so small that I forgot that I had it in my pockets from yesterday. I remembered it when you mentioned potions."

Hermione stared at him suspiciously for a moment but then brushed off the suspicion in favor of excitement.

" Do you have anything else in that pouch?" she asked eagerly.

He reached in and felt around, "Not much, another set of robes, nothing useful."

" Darn. But I guess we should be grateful you had this." She gave a happy little bounce, suddenly energized, "This is great. I can brew that potion and we'll be set!"

She got to work immediately, feeling like herself for the first time since she arrived. Malfoy hovered over her, strangely silent. Once in awhile she asked him to hand her something and, surprisingly, he did so without a fight. When the brewing got underway, he got bored and wandered off.

She didn't ask where he was going.

The concoction took three hours total to complete, and then she had a slimy brown gunk that smelled like old cabbage. All she had to do was smear some on the object she wanted the spell to find, say a few words and then let the gunk boil away. When the last of it vaporized, she would find a small compass-like object at the bottom of the cauldron, made from the cauldron's own metal. From then on, the compass would point them towards the closest target, the closest quill or the closest book or whatever she decided to use. She was fairly certain she was going to use books.

She was about to call Malfoy over when she was suddenly struck by a disquieting thought.

Malfoy had come back for one reason, and that was because he didn't know which way to go. Once the compass was made, he wouldn't really need her anymore. What if he took the compass and the cauldron and deserted her? He wouldn't do that would he?  
Uneasy, Hermione grabbed something else from her pile and sprinkled it in the gunk, then she leaned over, spit in the cauldron and whispered her name. It was a trick she'd learned from Moody, and it was probably the smartest thing she'd done all day.

" Hey Malfoy, its ready!"

The albino leech came prancing over to examine her potion. " Yum, home cookin'."

" Ew, shut up. I'm going to smear some on this book." She held up one of her books, "The potion will then point us towards the nearest book."

" Will it find the closest book or the closest spell book?" Malfoy asked dubiously.

Hermione turned her head to stare at him in utter shock and amazement and blurted out," Dear Merlin, you just had an intelligent thought. Are you okay? Do you need to lie down?"

To her further amazement, he didn't get angry, he just raised his eyebrows, " Potions is my best subject, Grimy Granger. Don't get smart with me or I'll toss you in the creek."

She didn't know what to say to that, especially since she believed the creek part, so she just ignored it and got to work. The potion soaked quickly into the book and after she'd said the words the potion in the cauldron began evaporating very quickly.

" Don't inhale the fumes." She leaned away from the cauldron.

" Fuck you, I can do what I want."

She blinked at him, startled, and then realized he was probably joking. Probably.

As the last of the potion vanished, Hermione gave a squeak and reached into the cauldron to pull out a small, round and incredibly hot little device. Yelping, she tossed it back and forth between her hands and blew on it until it cooled enough for her to handle it. The little piece was smaller than her palm. It looked like a compass, except there were no symbols for the four main directions on it.

" Where did it come from?" Malfoy asked in surprise.

" It was made from the cauldron metal."

" Shiiiiit! It probably weakened my cauldron. You owe me a new one!"

" Well you owe me a new wand so let's call it even."

He opened his mouth to get the last word but she shushed him loudly.

She lifted her arm and turned slowly in a circle, eyes locked on the compass. The madly spinning dial in the middle suddenly went still and jerked around until it was pointing somewhere towards the South-East.

" It works." She whispered, "It works, it works, it works!" she practically shrieked the last part, jumping up and down and spinning in a circle in excitement.

" Gimme that! Let me see!"

" Hey!"

She stumbled, nearly thrown to ground as Malfoy ripped the compass from her hand. He stared at it for a long time and then frowned.

" It just keeps spinning!" he snarled at last, whirling on her, "Its not pointing any direction."

Hermione smiled, a small self-satisfied smile, " I spelled it to work only for me." She said sweetly.

Malfoy's jaw dropped.

" Why you little…" he started, and then he surprised her again by bursting into laughter.

It was Hermione's turn to be stunned. What the heck was he laughing about?

" Maybe there's hope for you, after all." He chuckled finally, still shaking his head, and he tossed the compass back to her.

She was learning. The Mudblood was finally catching on and he found it delightful.

It was a cruel way to teach, a Slytherin way to teach, but he liked giving her the lessons.

Since he arrived back in the clearing, she'd been acting like they were old friends, like they were here to cling together like first-year girls and help each other out or some shit like that.

It was disturbing.

She was being nice, nicer than she'd ever been to him, and he wouldn't have been so annoyed if he thought she was only trying to get on his good side. But he knew better. She was trying to take care of him in the annoying way that Gryffindors often took care of each other. She'd apparently thought they were going to be best buddies.

Well here was her wake up call.

The real world didn't work like that.

Friends were friends. Enemies were enemies. And sometimes the former was more dangerous than the latter. She would be a lot safer if they remained enemies, but she didn't understand that, couldn't understand that. There was no suspicion, no darkness in her way of thinking.

She was just a tool to get to where he was going and if she were smart, she'd see him in the same light.

He'd seen the first hint of understanding in her eyes over breakfast. She'd realized in that moment that, given the opportunity, he'd take every last crumb of her hard-won food just because he could. She'd taken some for herself before he got there, but not nearly as much as she should have.

If she wanted her share, she needed to take it.

She was too soft. That was his trump card. He knew for a fact that no matter how badly he treated her or what he took from her, she'd keep helping him and do her best to keep him out of trouble.

It was a Gryffindor trait. A really sad one.

That wasn't to say that Slytherins didn't help each other out. In fact, now more than ever Slytherins stuck together, but ambition knew no allies and those who wanted to be on top learned fast how to rely only on themselves, use everyone around them to their best advantage, and trust no one else.

He didn't even trust Pansy or his mother, though he loved them both more than anything else. His mother, as far as he was concerned, was on his father's side.

And Pansy…they'd played too many political games when they were younger to ever trust each other again. They had forgiven each other, but never forgotten.

Slytherin kids learned to take care of themselves first. Then they learned to form alliances but to always watch their allies carefully and to know when it was best for them to go behind an ally's back to secure an even better deal.

It was business, that was all.

And the forest, nature itself, was business at its best.

He didn't like that he was now somewhat dependent on Granger, though no more than before he supposed, but he could appreciate that she had taken steps to ensure her usefulness. Besides, even if he didn't have an exact location, he now knew the general direction they were going to go.

South-East.

" Hey, Malfoy!"

Granger's voice broke him from his thoughts.

" What now? Aren't you ready to leave yet?" he growled.

She gave him a look that somehow managed to convey the fact that she thought he was stupid but that she was willing to be patient anyway. He was beginning to hate that look.

" I need to bring some of this stuff along. There's not much room in my backpack, so could we put it in your pouch?"

Uh…no.

He turned to her with a perfectly serious expression on his face, "This bag doesn't work like that. It can only carry a certain number of items."

She frowned in surprise, and he could almost see the lists of spell and enchantments scanning behind her eyes, "I've never heard of one like that. That spell should be pretty basic and allow enough room for anything you want to put in there."

He shook his head, "Too much physical mass inside it and the spell will just collapse."

Her eyes narrowed, "That's not even possible!" she said, the first hint of suspicion coloring her voice.

He didn't even blink, " Well that's how this one works. So you're going to have to carry your own stuff."

" But I can't carry it all. This is stuff that we need! I can't leave it behind!"

" You're just going to have to pick and choose."

Granger was always good for a laugh. She was so gullible

" I'm telling you Malfoy, it doesn't work like that. Just let me try it." She pleaded.

" No way, you'll ruin it."

" Malfoy, trust me, I know about this stuff."

" No, I'm not going to let you break it."

" I won't break it!" her voice rose in exasperation, " It won't break, it can't break. It…" she trailed off as something in his face gave him away.

Damn, what had she seen?

Her face darkened, "You're lying." She sounded shocked and then she yelled, " You've been lying to me since you got back! You lied about the Shutoei's, you lied about not having anything useful, and now you're lying about the bag."

He couldn't help it, he grinned.

Granger exploded, " I can't believe this! I can not believe this! I thought you had some brains, Malfoy! We're in a life-or-death situation and you're playing stupid mind games! Grow up! Are you trying to get us killed? Because if you don't help me out here, that's what's going to happen!"

" Now that's going a little far." Draco chided mildly, " I doubt we'll actually die because I lied to you."

" So now that you've had your fun, can we put this stuff in your bag." She gritted out, chest heaving with fury.

" No. I don't think so." His voice turned cold, no longer joking around," Its luggage, and Malfoy's don't carry luggage."

Her jaw dropped, "You've got to be kidding." She protested, " You wouldn't even feel it in that bag!"

" You have plenty of room for that crap in your backpack. Just leave your school books behind."

" Leave my books!"

He savored the horrified expression on her face. Oh, this was rich.

" I know it will be hard for you Granger, but I assure you that it is possible to survive without school books."

" Why..why are you doing this? What is the matter with you?"

He opened his mouth but she cut him off.

" Don't! I don't want to hear it. I know exactly what's wrong with you! But guess what? I don't care! I don't care that your daddy loves Voldemort more than he loves you. I don't care that your girlfriend only wants you for your money. I don't care that you'll never be as wonderful, well liked or as good looking as Harry Potter. I don't care that your precious House-Elf is the only sexual partner you've had for the last four years. You're pathetic. I hate you. And I don't care. I've had enough! It doesn't have anything to do with me. You've made your point, I'll never count on you for anything ever again."

He had gone rigid during her speech, shocked. A few barbs in that string of nonsense had actually hit too close to home. He couldn't believe she had the gall to speak to him like that.

Now he was pissed.

He grabbed her arm when she started to turn away, " Listen you little bitch…"

She knocked his hand away," I'm sick of listening to you!"

" Too bad!" he spun her around and grabbed her by the collar, wrenching her forward. She started to struggle in surprise but he shook her and she went still, eyes wide.

" Malfoy…"

"You seem to think you have some sort of control over this situation." He cut her off, voice deceptively soft, " You act like we're equals or something. Well guess what, we're not. Those two fuckers you hang out with at school might let you lead them around by the balls but we're far far away from Hogwarts, kiddo."

He shook her again and she gasped and grabbed his wrists, lower lip trembling, "You're alone. You're weak and helpless and no one is here to protect you.

Except possibly me, and that's a very distant possibility since I would love to see you suffer and I'll probably be the one to make you suffer. You're going to do as I say and you're going to be damn grateful that I even allow you in my presence or I'm going to beat the shit out of you. Do you understand? If you ever talk back to me again I'll tear you apart."

She was actually speechless. He liked that. Her face had gone white and her eyes were wide. He could see the realization. She was finally realizing that she was alone with him and he could do just about anything to her and there was no one around to stop him. There was real fear in her eyes. He savored it, drank it in. Maybe the little bitch would be a little humbler now.

He shoved her, sending her crashing to the ground hard enough that she smacked her head.

" Get up." He barked.

She sat up quickly, rubbing the back of her head. He could see her struggling between fear and outrage.

Her eyes went hard and her chin jutted forward stubbornly, outrage was winning, " You…"

That pissed him off again. She should be blubbering by now, cowering away from him and begging him not to hurt her. Granger broke off in a yelp as he grabbed her and hauled her to her feet, his fingers digging into her arms hard enough to bruise.

" Dump your books and pack your stuff. NOW!" He ordered and gave her a little push.

For several heartbeats she just stood there with an unreadable expression on her face, but then, apparently seeing no other alternative, she strode grudgingly, bitterly to her backpack and dumped the contents onto the ground. The sight of her treasured books lying forlornly in the dirt like somebody's dead puppy made her eyes softened and she gazed at them regretfully.

Savagely satisfied, Draco stalked up behind her, "Do we need to give them a proper burial? Have a moment of silence maybe? We can leave a tombstone if you want?"

" AGH!" she swung around and clobbered him twice across the face with her backpack.

The heavy material smacked him in the head and had him yowling and scrambling back, more surprised then hurt.

Granger snarled at him, backpack held in attack position and he was so dumbfounded he couldn't even retaliate. When he didn't move she dropped the backpack and put a hand on her hip.

" If you have to beat up a girl to prove what a big strong man you are, then you're even more pathetic then I thought." Her voice was mocking and cold and not the least bit afraid," I'm going to go wash up, Malfoy. When I get back we'll pack up and leave. Go pull the wings off a fly or something."

She tossed her hair, the bint actually tossed her hair at him, and stomped away off into the woods.

Well how the fuck do you like that!

He realized his mouth was hanging open and quickly snapped it shut. His face flushed warm with embarrassment.

That bitch. That fucking bitch! He couldn't let her get away with that.

Without stopping to think, he darted off into the woods after her.

He'd had several days of practice when it came to moving quietly through the woods. Moving silently was impossible it seemed, but quiet he could do. He kept far to the right of where he guessed her path to be, he doubted she'd stray far from the creek, so that he wouldn't come through the brush and walk right into her.

He found her in a small, sandy cove about five minutes walk from camp. The ground rose sharply on both sides, and the inlet was almost completely surrounded, it probably made her feel safe. The water was deep and fast there as well, nice, clean and fresh.  
Draco stayed on the high ground, crept around the curve of the inlet to the highest spot and ducked down. He could see the whole cove from his vantage point and he had plenty of cover.

Granger was leaning heavily against the dirt wall, her face buried against her arm and her shoulders shaking. For a moment he thought she was crying and he practically burst with unholy glee, but then she raised her head and he could see her face was pale and strained but dry.

Okay, so not crying but she was shaking and definitely frightened out of her wits.

That was nearly as good as tears. He could feel a measure of triumph in that. He could gloat. It was nice to know that her little outburst back at the clearing had been nothing but grandstanding and that on the inside she'd been about to pee her pants in terror.

She pushed away from the wall and slid her robe off.

With a start, he remembered that she'd come there to wash. Was she going to get naked? His first reaction was utter and complete fascinated revulsion. A Mudblood bathing. Nasty, this was going to be a train wreck! Then he realized what a ridiculous thought that was. She'd look just like everyone else, wouldn't she? Not like she'd have tentacles or something under there, right?

With a quiet snort, he realized his subconscious probably half believed she did.

Brainwashing.

He could easily believe that Muggles and Mudbloods were inferior insects compared to wizards, but really, the Death Eaters like to exaggerate too much.

When he was five, before he'd ever seen a Muggle, he'd believed everything he was told and had honestly thought Muggles were short, fat, pasty-skinned cousins to the troll that wandered around like brainless lumps and ate their own babies. That last was something Goyle's father liked to say.

Well, here was a golden opportunity.

He could stick around and find out exactly what was under a Mudblood's robes. It was a scientific study for the good of wizard-kind…and it would be great revenge. Granger would be so humiliated when she discovered he was watching. He could tell her how disgusting she was and maybe then she'd finally cry.

And once they got back to school, he'd tell all the Slytherin guys about the warts on her ass or something. He'd even recreate pictures with the Mind-Image spell.

He congratulated himself on his wicked plot and settled back to watch.

Granger was completely oblivious to his presence. She folded her robe neatly and laid it on a relatively dry log and then she started unbuttoning her white blouse.

Quite suddenly it was hard to swallow, his mouth had gone bone dry. He leaned forward. She really was gonna take it off!

She slid the white shirt off her shoulders and all his thoughts vanished, scattered like dry forest leaves in the wind. Gone. His brain was empty of everything except a rushing white noise and all his senses seemed heightened, sharpened.

Granger's shoulders were tan from the summer sun, her belly was flat and soft, her bra was lacy white…and she was peeling off her skirt.

Draco's stomach seemed to drop as his eyes followed the skirt over her round little bottom and down her long, shapely legs. Her panties were a shimmering dark blue mixed with an equally dark green and seemed to be shaped funny. French cut was the word, though he didn't know that. He'd never seen panties quite like that.

And she was reaching for her bra, holy fuck, she was reaching for the clasp.

It was hard to breathe.

The scrap of white fabric came away and his eyes locked on her breasts hungrily. Perfect, plump mounds, full and soft with rosy tips. Probably the most gorgeous breasts he'd seen outside a porno magazine. What would they feel like? His imagination immediately kicked in, drowning him in images, textures, what it would be like to cup her in his hands and run his thumb…run his thumb over…

She was peeling her panties down.

He focused on taking deep even breaths as her little bottom swayed naked in front of him. His fingers bit into his thighs, his teeth bit into his lip and he actually whimpered as she half turned to drop her panties on the log with her other clothes and he could see her. The apex of her thighs, the center of her.

Perfectly naked before him. Perfectly naked. Perfect. Gorgeous. Desirable.

He watched her step into the water, watched her squeak and shiver at the cold, watched until her breasts disappeared under the cool mountain flow and then he flopped hard on his back, scrunching his eyes shut, breathing hard through his teeth, his hand passing once, dangerously, over the painful, hardness in his pants. He wanted to press his hand there, rub, stroke, relieve the pressure that had built to a steady ache. He wanted to just shut his eyes and replay those last moments in his mind over and over again. He wanted to sit up and watch her scrub herself clean, rub her hands over her belly and breasts absently as she  
washed.

But he knew better. He knew better and he was a FUCKING IDIOT!

What the hell was wrong with him!

Mudblood! Say it with me now: Mudblood! She was a Mudblood, not even really human and he was getting hard over her! The point had been to embarrass and humiliate her, not to get off on watching! It was like getting hard over a farm animal. How sick could you get! A sudden ugly feeling rolled through his belly, like he was going to be ill.

She looked pretty human to me. Cackled a nasty little voice in the back of his head. Nice and pretty and soft and female and completely free of tentacles, slime or warts on her ass.

She had looked female. Completely, utterly female.

But that didn't matter! Maybe they were similar on the outside but she was still a Mudblood on the inside!

Calm down, Draco, just calm down.

But he couldn't. He was shocked, confused and suddenly quite furious at her more than with himself. A lifetime of bigotry and prejudice that had been blind and deaf to the girl's brilliance and talent had just been blindsided instead by sheer femininity. He hadn't expected his body to react to her. He'd expected it to know the difference between a disgusting Mudblood and a real girl.

And that was the problem. Granger was suddenly no longer an 'it'. She was a she, female. And that just wasn't right. It couldn't be.

Behind the brain and the huge black robes, Granger was a lovely young girl and that knowledge, subconscious though it still was, shook the pillars of his entire existence. And when the pillars people stand on are shaken, they tend to lash out, to save themselves at all costs.

Draco got quickly, silently to his feet. He caught one glimpse of Granger, dripping and gleaming with spring water, and fled.

He spit and cursed all the way back to the clearing, raging. He quickly realized that working himself up wasn't going to help. It just made him want to do something drastic, like shove a tree branch through his ears and scrub his brain off, or rip his eyes out and wash them clean. He paced around the clearing and tried to flip the situation, tried to find something to gloat about in the fact that he'd seen what Potter and Weasley, and probably a fair number of the other Gryff boys too, only got to see in their imaginations while they were in bed wanking each other off.

He tried to imagine Granger's horror and humiliation when he told her he'd been watching her bathe. He tried to imagine the Slytherin boys laughing their fool heads off while he told them about it, with a few extra details added in of course. But his brain kept going back to pictures of Granger soft and curvy and naked for his eyes alone, while another part kept whispering 'Mudblood' viciously over and over.

A twig snapped and he started, jerking around, eyes wild.

Granger froze at his startled movement. Her hair was dripping wet and her robe was open a little so he could see her white shirt sticking to her still-damp skin in a few places. But that didn't matter because he could still see her, golden and gleaming, right behind his eyes. Her face was damp, clean and pale. Surprise faded from her eyes and haughtiness took its place.

His fists clenched.

He stalked over to her, practically shaking as he tried to keep himself under control. He didn't know what he was going to do when he got to her, he wasn't even thinking about it. Granger started to sneer at him but whatever she saw in his face caused her words to die on her lips and now she stiffened, uncertainty and a trace of fear crossing her pretty features. She held still, absolutely still.

Did he look as crazy as he felt right now?

Or could she sense it, sense it like animals sense earthquakes and storms, like tingles of electricity along her nerve endings, primitive warnings in the back of her mind whispering 'Danger'.

He stopped in front of her.

If she had spoken, he didn't know what he would have done. Instead, she stood quivering like a mouse before a snake and he gloried bitterly and viciously in that power.

His eyes narrowed and he raised a hand…and ran the pad of his thumb over her cheek slowly, softly, leaving a dark streak of dirt in stark contrast to her fair skin.

" Filthy…"

He ran his index finger over her brow leaving another mark.

" Dirty…"

He ran two fingers down her other cheek, making twin stripes.

" Mudblood..."

He admired his handwork for a moment, before turning and walking away, going off into the woods to cool off. Maybe even to wank off. Anything to clear his head.

Granger stayed standing like a statue where she was. She didn't say a word.

She didn't dare.  
  



	8. The Eyes of the Beholder

Hermione's fingers brushed over her cheek and came away with dirt.

Her hand trembled.

She wasn't exactly sure what had just happened, but she knew that something had changed and not for the better. Malfoy was already bad news. He'd abandoned her, used her, lied to her, bullied and attacked her, this whole situation was his fault to begin with and now she had a terrible feeling that the honeymoon was over. Something had changed just a moment ago and she'd been more afraid of him than she had ever been in her life.

She'd been frightened, really frightened, of Draco Malfoy. He'd stood there with blazing eyes and violence in every taut line of his body and she'd been frozen.

Completely stunned by the change in him, struck dumb by the idea that he was someone to be feared. It wasn't even so much what he had done as the feeling that something else had nearly happened. Some disaster just barely averted. And she didn't want to know what that disaster was.

Funny, she'd never really thought of Malfoy as dangerous before, not really. Oh, she'd been scared he might beat her up or something, and she'd definitely been afraid that he might hurt her with that knife when he'd shown it to her back in Diagon alley but she'd never once thought 'Oh my gosh, Malfoy's going to kill me'.

She'd never once thought he'd do anything that she couldn't walk away from once it was over.

She walked slowly to the stream, fingers still touching her cheek as if the secret to the boy's behavior could be divined from the marks he'd put there. Kneeling in the moist sand, she leaned over to wash her face. Her back was stiff, tense, and she realized that she was listening intently in case Malfoy decided to sneak up on her from behind.

Merlin! Was she really that shaken up?

She stared blankly down at the rushing ice water, taking slow even breaths, trying to calm herself and get a clear perspective on the situation.

Her trip to the stream before had been nothing so much as a graceful retreat from a bad situation that promised only to escalate.

She did not want to be around after Malfoy got over the shock of her smacking him upside the head with her backpack. She'd hoped she'd given him enough time to cool down while she washed and had expected to come back to find him sullen and angry, not pacing like a caged animal. Had he really spent the entire time she was gone seething?

Okay, so maybe she shouldn't have bashed him in the face with her backpack but it wasn't like he didn't deserve it. Realistically, she had expected some sort of retaliation, what she hadn't expected was to be dealing with a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum one second and then find herself staring into the eyes of a psychopath the next.

He'd scared her. Really scared her.

A year ago, the idea that Malfoy was dangerous would have seemed ludicrous. Not even Dumbledore himself could have convinced her he was anything more than a shameless bully. It wasn't like he'd do any real harm. He was just a kid. They were both just kids…

Except they weren't anymore. They hadn't been for awhile.

She didn't think about it often, arrogant in her assurance of her own invulnerability, but Malfoy had done some pretty awful stuff in the past couple of years. He'd kicked Dorgan Roxit off his broomstick fifty feet above the quidditch pitch during a game and nearly got the boy killed. He broke Nikko Duarte's arm and pushed Tabby Sieck down a flight of stairs. She'd lost count of the number of people he beat up. He even beat up people from his own House. He'd put an Exploding Turtle Egg in Ron's bag that, luckily, exploded out on the grass during Care of Magical Creatures. It could have seriously injured Ron or burned the boys' room to the ground if it exploded indoors. He'd tried to Crucio Harry twice that she knew of and the boys had told her several times to be careful, that Malfoy had tried to lure or follow her and Ginny off to secluded areas.

She hadn't taken them seriously. Malfoy wouldn't touch her so long as she had her Prefect's badge. Malfoy wouldn't touch her because Dumbledore took extra special care of his Golden Three. Malfoy wouldn't touch her because she was the smartest student at Hogwarts and knew more spells than he ever would.

Malfoy wouldn't touch her because Harry and Ron were always there to protect her.

They weren't here now.

Hermione wiped the dirt away, rinsing her hands in the water, watching the mud swirl and disappear.

Was she overreacting? She could almost convince herself that she was, except if she replayed the scene over in her mind she knew with a terrible certainty that she wasn't.

Had she been kidding herself this whole time? Was Malfoy one of the monsters that she'd convinced herself didn't, couldn't, exist within Hogwarts?

Dumbledore wouldn't allow Death Eaters in Hogwarts, would he? It was absurd.

But lately…lately, she was beginning to question many things she believed, including the idea that Dumbledore could not be fooled. Maybe it was time to question exactly what she knew about Malfoy. Or not question so much as face the facts.

He'd been raised in nothing so much as the wizard version of the mafia. His whole family was made up of Death Eaters. He was going to be one himself, if he wasn't one already.

The idea startled her. She'd never really considered… Was he already a Death Eater? If the nasty things he did at school were just his public face, who knew what kinds of horrible things he had participated in while wearing a white mask and a black robe?  
She let out her breath and shook her head, hugging herself as she stood and turned away from the water. Her eyes sought out her books automatically and an anger that was fast becoming all too familiar formed a knot in her chest. Anger was good. If she was angry than she didn't have to be scared.

She found that she was very angry.

Slowly building her rage into wildfire in her heart, she plopped down among her pile of supplies and began sorting through them.  
All she wanted to do was get back home, but Malfoy was making it as hard as he possibly could. He had the same goal as she did, didn't he? So why was he pressing the issue? Why couldn't all of this rivalry crap take a backseat?

Dangerous or not, if he thought she was going to allow him to bully her into doing whatever he said, he had another thing coming, the freaking egomaniac. She couldn't do it. She refused to even pretend to obey him, not even for the sake of peace. But if she didn't do as he told her, it might mean getting beat up.

Hermione ashamedly admitted to herself that she was a coward when it came to physical pain. She wasn't athletic, she wasn't a fighter, not physically anyway, and she had no idea what she would do if Malfoy decided to give her an actual pounding…except promise him retribution at the hands of Harry and Ron.

Hermione frowned, pausing to brush a damp lock of hair out of her eyes.

Perhaps that was the key to all of this. He wouldn't listen to reason, but bargaining with him might work. In the mean time she needed as many aces up her sleeve as she could get.

She tucked the last bit of vervain into her overstuffed backpack and tugged the zipper shut. Using a bit of string she roped her hazel branch to the side and then she was done. She shouldered her bag, testing the weight. It was heavy. Hiking with it on her back was going to suck. She spared one last disgusted glance for the things she had chosen to leave behind, her books among them and decided then and there that she'd never forgive Malfoy for it. She really hated him.

Speaking of the slime bucket, where was he anyway? They'd wasted too much time as it was. She didn't care if he wasn't finished with his stupid tantrum, she was ready to go!

" MALFOY!" she shouted, her voice echoing through the trees, "MALFOY, I WANT TO GO HOME!" she paused, hearing nothing but the wind in the trees and tried again, "GET BACK HERE OR I'M LEAVING WITHOUT YOU!"

She wasn't going to stand for any more of this running off to mope crap. School was going to start in just four days and, if nothing else, she wanted to make darn sure they were back before then. If they hustled, she was certain they could make it.

A good ten minutes passed with no sign of Malfoy. She tried shouting again, knowing he was going to fight her every step of the way. It took another ten minutes of shouting herself hoarse before it dawned on her what game Malfoy was playing.  
With a sigh, she readjusted her backpack, the straps were already digging into her shoulders, and tested her hypothesis. She checked the needle on her compass and marched out of the clearing. She was perhaps twenty feet away from the ring of trees when there was a rustling sound and Malfoy landed in front of her seemingly from out of nowhere. She'd been expecting it but the suddenness of his appearance still made her yelp and reel back a few paces.

Malfoy glared at her in shock and outrage, "You were really going to leave without me!"

She fought the urge to roll her eyes.

No you moron, you were just outsmarted. But she didn't say that. She decided to give him something to think about instead.

" I told you this morning that I wasn't going to take you with me." She told him coldly, "If you're coming, then keep up."

She flounced past him with false confidence and was completely unprepared for suddenly being airborne and slamming face first into the ground with Malfoy on top of her. He twisted her arm up behind her back with one hand and used the other to shove her face into the dirt.

" MALFOY, LET ME GO!" she shrieked, voice thick with panic, shocked by the sudden assault.

He twisted her arm tighter and she cried out in pain, kicking futilely. He was so much stronger than her! He was holding her down with very little effort at all.

" Listen. Shut up and listen very carefully." Malfoy said, deadly calm, "This is your last warning. Fuck up again and I will smash your face in. Don't you EVER," he punctuated the word by grinding her face in the dirt, " try to ditch me again. In fact, don't ever leave unless I say its okay. Okay?"

" Get off me!" she tried to sound strong but there was a whine of pain in the back of her throat.

Malfoy wrenched her arm until she screamed.

" Okay?" he asked again.

" Okay!" she shouted finally.

" Good."

The pressure was suddenly gone and Hermione jerked upright, spitting dirt and crying helplessly. She hated herself for the tears and tried to wipe them away but more kept coming. Malfoy watched her from several feet away, looking coolly satisfied.

" I'll get you back for this!" she shouted at him, breath hitching on her tears.

Malfoy smirked, " Somehow I doubt it."

" Harry and Ron are going to kill you when we get back."

Malfoy's smirk curled into an evil smile, " You won't tell them anything that happens out here."

She was so surprised that she stopped glaring at him, " What?"

" Believe me, you won't tell them a thing. Now get up, and wipe the dirt off your face. Its disgusting."

Furiously, Hermione wiped her face on her sleeve, hiccupping softly. Malfoy leaned against a tree and waited with an air of nonchalance while she tried to ball all her hatred and loathing into a glare that by all rights should have melted his face off. She rose unsteadily to her feet, the front of her robes covered in dirt and leaves. He smiled at her blandly.

She wouldn't let him get away with this. He was going to be very sorry for what he'd done. He might be gloating now but the second he needed her help, he was going to regret attacking her.

Malfoy made a sweeping motion with his hand, "After you."

What choice did she have?

She hesitated a second more then strode past him, head held high, trying not to flinch when he fell into step behind her.

The walk home was finally underway.

Despite her heavy bag and the general roughness of the terrain, Hermione might actually have enjoyed the walk if she wasn't in such an awful mood and if her arm didn't ache from Malfoy's rough treatment. Part of her was excited to finally be starting the hike home. The forest was beautiful and she couldn't wait to see all the unusual plants and animals that lived and grew in the forest. She couldn't wait to get home, back to Hogwarts and tell Harry and Ron all about it.

But even if she hadn't been so angry, Malfoy wasn't about to let her enjoy herself. He was doing his part to irritate by walking about five feet behind her, directly behind her, at all times. Stalking her. She couldn't see him and he was being absolutely silent, but she could feel him staring at the back of her head and it was making her extremely jumpy and nervous. She wanted to yell at him to knock it off, but a reaction was what he wanted, so she ignored him instead.

Despite Malfoy's efforts, the exertion of the trip eventually took her mind off him. She was too busy, physically and mentally, to pay any attention to him at all.

And, feeling her attention wavering, Malfoy grew bored and took to periodically darting off into the woods only to reappear ahead of her minutes, sometimes half an hour, later. That annoyed her too. He could easily go frolicking off somewhere and fall off a cliff and she'd never know. But she wasn't about to bring it up.

Let him do what he wanted. She might be better off if he did get himself killed.

She took small detours from her path whenever she found water or edible plant life and wished mightily that she had a container to keep water in. Dehydration was fast becoming her worst fear and she was adamant about stopping at every stream to drink and cool off.

Food wasn't hard to come by in this part of the forest, luckily and neither of them suffered hunger pains, though she was already getting pretty sick of fruits and roots. Even luckier was stumbling into an entire grove of fruit trees at one point during the afternoon. She stuffed as much fruit into her bag as she could, and ate until her face and hands were sticky with juice. Malfoy managed to reappear in time to gather some fruit of his own. That he had appeared so promptly made her wonder if he wasn't actually wandering as much as she thought he was. Maybe he actually had the brains to keep her in sight while he explored.

She was still furious with him but he seemed almost back to normal. She could only assume his indulgence in physical violence had appeased him, had sated his desire to torment her…at least for the moment. Despite an intense desire of her own to see him suffer, she felt honor bound to tell him what kind of fruit they were eating and how to recognize it if he saw it again. Who knew, maybe the deviant would prove useful in gathering food. Even if he didn't bring any back to her, at least she wouldn't have to feed him anymore. The blond boy glanced at her once or twice while she was talking and she thought he might actually be half  
listening but he wandered off before she'd finished so she couldn't really be sure.

As the day progressed, the excitement of the trip wore off, her mind wandered and the walk became boring. There was only so much to think about and she didn't particularly want to dwell on how mad she was at Malfoy or what would happen if they didn't make it back to Hogwarts in time or how bad her legs were hurting. There wasn't much to look at either. No matter how beautiful the forest was, it eventually became monotonous.

She hadn't seen any interesting animals and she was disappointed. The only animals she had seen were birds and squirrels. Not being an avid camper, she'd had this view of the forest as absolutely teaming with animals all the time. There had to be thousands of different species of animals living there, she knew, so where were they? Realistically, it was probably extremely lucky that she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She wouldn't have been nearly so excited about seeing wild animals if she happened to bump into a catoblepas or a cockatrice or even a regular old run-of-the-mill mountain lion.

She did see a few strange looking plants though. She saw some Silver Bells, a type of vine with gorgeous platinum leaves and flowers whose pollen looked like silver sparkles on the wind. The blossoms were supposed to indicate that fairies were nearby. She also saw a Corpse weed, an equally gorgeous black bloom on a long stalk with huge, wicked sharp thorns. The thorns were supposed to shoot out and kill passing creatures and then a new plant would grow out from the victim's body.

Hermione shouted out a warning to Malfoy when she saw it, hoping he was close enough to hear, and gave the plant a very wide berth. Maybe a very cold part of her deep down thought it would serve the boy right if she didn't warn him about it. But a mental image of Malfoy impaled through the chest, lying dead in the grass with glazed eyes and a beautiful plant blooming out of his ribcage was horrifying enough to push aside her pride and anger.

By mid afternoon, her face was damp with sweat and she couldn't seem to catch her breath. She took off her robe and stuffed it haphazardly into her already full backpack. Sweat was dripping down her back and she was certain she smelled, which really rankled her feminine pride.

She stopped for another break, the third in the past hour. It seemed her breaks were getting more and more frequent the later in the day it became. She sat on a fallen tree and pulled a mushy fruit from her backpack to nibble on. Malfoy came stalking back from his latest frolic a few minutes later, looking considerably pissed off. She paused when she saw his hand clamped to the back of his neck and blood smearing his collar.

" What happened to you?" she asked with healthy heaping of annoyance and absolutely no concern.

Malfoy, of course, ignored her tone and took the opportunity to indulge in a much needed session of griping and complaining, "Fucking bugs. I've been fighting the damn mosquitoes all day and then I run into this giant-ass butterfly and I'm like 'ah how pretty' and then the fucker takes a huge bite out of me. A butterfly bit me. Stupid forest. I hate this place!"

Hermione had to bit her lip to keep from grinning.

Oh man, Dracky got attacked by the big bad butterfly. Just wait till Harry and Ron hear about this.

She gave him sympathetic eyes, and hoped it didn't look too fake, " Let me see."

He backed away, eyeing her warily, as if she'd just asked for his soul, " No way, Mudblood, keep your slimy hands to yourself."

She didn't have to fake exasperation," I have to see it! What if its infected? Or poisoned?"

There was no such thing as a poisonous breed of bloodsucking butterfly but she'd bet just about anything that Malfoy didn't know that.

The snarl on his face faded into surprise and the hand on the back of his neck fell away, "Fine," he agreed grudgingly, " but don't touch it or you might infect it with your nasty Mudblood germs."

You should talk nicer to the doctor, Mr. Malfoy. No lollipop for you.

She nodded and walked around behind him. He was stiff as a board, tension zinging through his shoulders and she wondered mildly if he thought she was going to attack him or something.

The bite, more like puncture, made by the butterfly's proboscis was just above his collar. It was clean and superficial. She hadn't really expected anything bad from a butterfly, even a giant mountain bloodsucking variety.

It was time for a little payback. Just part payment though. A taster.

She rose on tiptoe and deliberately gave the wound a rough poke, " What color was the butterfly?"

" Hey!" he swatted at her.

" Hold still! I have to do this." Her voice brooked no argument and he subsided…until she dug her fingernail into the puncture.

" SHIT!" he yelped, jerking away, eyes wild.

She stared at him, feigning sympathy, " I barely touched you. It must be really tender. Turn back around, I'll be more careful."

Slowly he complied, eyeing her suspiciously.

" Now what color was it?"

" It was black, red and green." His voice was just slightly strained.

She covered her grin with one hand, cleared her throat and said solemnly.

" Hmm, those colors are never good. Bright colors usually serve as a warning to predators. They indicate poison." She changed tactics and brushed her fingers lightly across the nape of his neck, smirking as he tensed further, "There's some swelling here, the wound is red, starting to discolor. There's a lot of fluid discharge. There was definitely some sort of reaction. Are you allergic to anything?" She lightly drew a little pattern on the back of his neck.

" N..no.." he swallowed hard, voice distracted.

" No?" she brushed her fingers along his skin, blowing lightly on the back of his neck to watch him jerk, goosebumps breaking out over his skin, "Malfoy…" she broke off, her voice very serious, "Malfoy… Draco…" she took him by the shoulders and turned him around. He was surprised enough that he let her do it.

She looked him in the eye and said seriously, " Draco this is very bad. There is indication of poisoning and I have no idea how to even begin looking for an antidote."

All the color drained from his face. It took a moment for him to find his voice.

" So…what..? What does that mean?"

" There are two species of Giant Mountain bloodsuckers with the colors you described. One is incredibly toxic. The other isn't. Depending on which type bit you there could be nothing more serious than redness and swelling…or the bite could be lethal." She paused, gave his shoulders a squeeze and said, very gently, "Draco…if you die…can I have your autographed Chudley Cannons poster?"

" What!"

" I can give it to Ron for Christmas." She said brightly, " And what should I put on your tombstone? 'Here lies Draco Malfoy, tongued to death by a butterfly, nature's most vicious killer'." She couldn't keep a straight face any longer and cracked up, doubling over with laughter at the expression on his face.

For a moment the boy looked shell shocked and then his face twisted in rage as he apparently got the joke and he shoved her as hard as he could. Hermione reeled back and slammed against a tree, barely catching herself before she fell. Later she would have a nasty bruise but at the moment she was laughing so hard she didn't care. Malfoy was wavering somewhere between rage and embarrassment, glacial eyes flashing and his face beet red.

" You bitch, you…" he seemed unable to complete a sentence.

It made her laugh harder.

" Told you I'd get you back!" she taunted, "Oh, you should have seen your face! Oh mi gosh! Priceless! Death by butterfly!" and she dissolved into laughter again.

" You won't be laughing in a minute!" Malfoy snarled and took one step towards her, fists clenched.

Hermione danced away laughing, " I don't think so. You lay one finger on me and you don't get any bug repellent. You'll be eaten alive before we ever get home. I'll stop burning the Noitch chips in our campfire at night and just wear the repellent myself and you'll wake up with a face bumpier than this mountain side."

Noitch was a natural repellent and it just so happened to be a weed that was extremely easy to find. It could be applied directly to the skin or burned in a campfire. Hermione had been doing both for days.

Malfoy went still. He growled at her as he considered her threat. The bugs must really have been bothering him if the repellent meant that much to him.

" You know, come to think of it, I don't understand why you haven't had a problem with the bugs before. I expected you to be whining about them a lot sooner."

She giggled, " I figured I'd withhold the repellent until it was worth my while to offer it to you but I just couldn't help myself."

Malfoy's growl faded into a strange expression and she saw him appraising her as if she'd just done a very interesting trick, " What if I just act nice until I get the repellent and then I kick the shit out of you?" he asked. And it was funny because it sounded like he was really asking, like he was presenting it as an option instead of just threatening her.

She smiled nastily, "Then you get a special surprise in your food when you least expect it. I've seen some plants out here that would really make you sorry. And I picked a few of them. You said earlier that we're not equal and you're right, I know things that you don't and that gives me an edge. If you kick me around, I'll make you pay."

Malfoy's expression turned wary, guarded, as he considered the full implications of her challenge and she found herself caving in a bit despite herself.

" Look," she began, a little nicer, " I doubt we're going to be in this forest for more than a couple of days. We can spend it being completely suspicious of each other and unable to trust a single thing the other says or we can work together and no one gets hurt."

He laughed at her, "Are you proposing a truce?"

" Yes I am." She crossed her arms.

Malfoy smiled, honey sweet, and then yelled, " You can forget it. I don't make truces with Mudbloods. In fact, I think you've just declared war."

" WHAT!"

Malfoy grinned wolfishly, " That's right. You really shouldn't have messed with me, kiddo. I was going to go easy on you, but if you want it rough, I'll give it to you rough. You're going to be begging for mercy before I'm through with you."

" What do you mean war? Malfoy this is ridiculous!" she sputtered, suddenly feeling like she was sinking very fast into murky water and trying to claw her way out even though she could tell from the look in his eyes that there was no escape.

" You declared war. You leave me no choice but to defend myself." He said with satisfaction.

" But it is your choice!" she yelled in exasperation, " I don't understand, Malfoy. By acting like this, you're making things harder on yourself too. Why can't you just let it go? I'm willing to work with you, but you're not even going to try. Its just for a few days, Malfoy, and no one is going to see! What is so important that you can't think of putting it aside even for your own safety?"

She saw something cross his face, some thought or emotion that she couldn't read. He knew the answer to that question. He didn't even have to think about it.

But she doubted he was about to share.

" It has nothing to do with you." He said finally, cryptically, "I'm just protecting myself."

What the heck did that mean?

" What are you talking about, it has everything to do with me."

His silvery gaze gave her nothing.

Hermione sighed, patience worn thin, "Look, how about this. You be nice to me, don't beat me up or push me around, or give me bruises or steal my food and…wait, just wait!" she said quickly before he could start yelling at her, "And I'll give you something in return. We'll have a bargain."

His interest was obviously peaked, but caution came first," What will you give me?" he asked slowly.

" Um…I haven't thought that far ahead." She spread her hands lamely.

Malfoy smiled slyly, "Alright, you swear to me under wizards oath that you'll do me a favor, anything I want upon request, and I will treat you like a bloody queen."

Hermione gave him a dry look, "I'm. Not. That. Bloody. Stupid. Anything you want upon request? Give me a freaking break. We'd get back to Hogwarts and you'd tell me to push Harry off the astronomy tower or something."

Malfoy cocked his head, "That was actually my second thought."

" What was your first?"

He shook his head and smirked, "You don't want to know."

She stared at him, at the dreamy, faraway look in his eyes and knew he wasn't kidding. She didn't, she definitely did not want to know what went on in his twisted little brain.

" You're right."

" Fine. Then unless you can think of something I want, oh and I want two favors now, one to get me to consider peace talks, and another upon agreement, we're officially at war and just so you know, you're going down. See ya later, Muddy." He trotted off into the woods, ignoring her protests.

" Malfoy! Will you just wait a second! You can't just…"

He turned back suddenly, "Oh, and while you're trying to think of nice things to give me, you might also want to think about what exactly you're going to do about the Wyvern that's hanging around here. Since I'm your enemy now, I'm not exactly going to help you if you run into it."

He laughed at her horrified expression.

" A wyvern?"

Wyverns were serpentine cousins to the dragon. They were much smaller then dragons, had only two legs along with a pair of wings and didn't breathe fire.

They did have vicious tempers though and the ability to hunt in packs.

Had he really seen one? No, he was just trying to scare her.

" You're making that up! You're making it up just like you made up everything else. There are no wyverns around here, the environment's all wrong."

" Whatever you say, kiddo." He called back, as he walked backwards into the trees, " But hey, maybe if you apologize really nicely for being a disgusting Mudblood, and ask my forgiveness, I'll consider not letting it eat you."

Yeah right, what could he do against a wyvern?

She was getting mad now, " You can just consider shutting up then because I don't believe you!" she yelled.

She was convinced he was lying but at the same time disturbed by the smug, half excited look on his face. She knew that look. It was the look he got whenever something bad was about to happen to someone he didn't like.

But a wyvern? No way. She didn't want to believe him, the thought was scary. That was a big-time, highly aggressive predator. There would be no way at all to defend against one should she happen upon it, especially without her wand.

The boy's laughter faded into the woods.

Stupid Malfoy. What exactly was he trying to accomplish? He hadn't even asked for the bug repellent. Did he think he needed to take it from her? Was he going to jump her later on to get it? The thought was extremely uncomfortable.

That idiot! That hard-headed, arrogant rat.

She seethed furiously, wanting to drag him back and beat him over the head with a tree branch. Maybe club him unconscious and drag him the rest of the way home.

Her shoulders slumped dejectedly.

She'd made it worse. She'd gone and made it ten times worse. He'd just been picking on her before, but now he was all excited because they were 'at war'.

This was just great. And she thought she'd been nervous before!

The only thing she could think of that might remedy the situation now was to get back to Hogwarts as fast as humanly possible.

Anger, and a heaping helping of paranoia, gave her energy and she resumed her hike. She thought of several clever and nasty things to say to Malfoy as she stomped along and she was just waiting for the little jerk to show up and say something mean so she could lay into him, but Malfoy wasn't complying. Upon his eventual return, he remained silent, following along easily, serenely, behind her. When he didn't say anything, and in fact he seemed to be ignoring her now, she got even angrier and wished he would leave again.

How was it that he knew precisely how to act at any given time to annoy her the most? She was suddenly so sick of him she could just scream. She couldn't wait to get back home. She began planning exactly what she'd say to Harry and Ron to get optimum bone-breaking rage from them. Another part of her wanted to just fold and let Malfoy have his way in order to avoid the fighting. But really, it wasn't like he'd treat her nice if she just gave in to everything he said. If anything, he'd probably treat her worse.  
After another hour and a half she'd forgotten about Malfoy and his incredible inanity in favor of her burning muscles. Her legs felt like jelly and her back was one giant ache. There were probably several more hours of daylight left but at this point, she didn't care. She'd had it. The minute she found water, they were stopping for the night. It was actually a bit discouraging. If she were in better shape, she might have made it further.

Of course, she thought irritably, if she didn't have a giant backpack weighing her down she might have made it even further than that.

She shot a furious glance at Malfoy who had returned about ten minutes ago from his latest frolic and instantly quelled under a darkly malicious sneer that was more a fierce baring of teeth then anything else.

Dang him! Why did the jerk have to be so big and scary?

Ignoring him haughtily, she untied her hazel stick from her bag, intent on finding water. The nearest stream just so happened to be in the direction they needed to walk in anyway. A good half mile later, Hermione stumbled on a fair sized stream and all but flung herself into it. She drank deeply, gulping the icy water and giving herself a violent brain-freeze. When her lips were blue and the front of her shirt was soaked, she plopped down to sit near the bank, her eyes flicking to her reluctant companion.

Malfoy was being curiously still and silent. He hadn't moved since they reached the spring. He was just standing there, looking big and mean and pissed off.

What was his problem? He had to be as thirsty as she was.

He was watching her with a savage expression on his face.

" We're stopping here for the night." She told him firmly, and braced herself for a fight.

The boy gave her an ugly glare, his face cold and harsh, but otherwise didn't react.

She stared at him uneasily, something prickling the back of her neck," Malfoy?"

No response. None. It wasn't even like he was ignoring her, it was like…

Hermione pulled herself up, groaning because her muscles felt like spaghetti and approached him cautiously. The boy didn't move, didn't speak. She searched his eyes.

There was nothing there, no one home.

Startled, she squealed and lashed out. Her hand struck air, vanishing through his chest and the image of Malfoy remained undisturbed. She stumbled back a few paces, staring in horror at the Malfoy-image. For a minute she was hopelessly confused and then her brain kicked in and she realized that she was, literally, seeing things. It was her eyes that were affected. There was nothing in front of her, absolutely nothing, it was her eyes that were creating the image, her eyes that were enchanted.

Hermione plunged back into the stream and dunked her whole face under the water, rubbing her eyes and scrubbing her face. She sat back up in the water, gasping and shivering and glanced around. The Malfoy image was gone.

Where was the real Malfoy? What was going on? Was this some sort of joke Malfoy was playing on her? But there was no way he could have enchanted her.

" External visual enchantment." She muttered, teeth chattering, " It had to be airborne because nothing else touched my eyes. Possibly from pollen, spores or some sort of animal dander. What for? Nature cares only for food and reproduction. Possibly a lure? But I wasn't being led anywhere, I… Malfoy… Malfoy was following me and now he's gone. Merlin, I get it!" she stumbled, sloshing from the stream, sopping wet and screamed as loud as she could, "MAALFOY! MALFOY! IT'S A TRICK! MALFOY, I'M OVER HERE! MALFOY!"

Draco was in a pretty good mood.

He'd been in a good mood ever since he'd trounced the Mudblood that morning. The little bint had shrieked like a baby, it had been hilarious. He hadn't really been that angry with her, he'd just wanted to hurt her, show her he was serious about fucking her up if she got out of line. And it had worked. He'd felt much better after knocking her down a peg or two. Everything in his neat little world view that had been scattered like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle thrown by an angry child had been put firmly back in place by putting her firmly in her place. Down in the mud.

Really he'd gone easy on her. He hadn't fucked her up yet even though she was really asking for it. The only reason he hadn't was because it would slow them down if he bloodied her up too bad.

Oh, it had been fantastic to finally see her cry, to see her humbled. She thought she was so great, so perfect, when all she was was a filthy aberration of nature that would never be good enough to lick the dirt off his shoes. She shouldn't have a Head Girl badge, she should have a collar and a leash.

Stupid whore. Pathetic, sniveling little cunt.

Okay, so maybe he wasn't in that great a mood.

He was still pissed about the whole butterfly incident. Shit, that had been embarrassing. She'd made him look like a complete idiot and then laughed at him.

That bite had hurt like a mother fucker and he'd just stood there while she jabbed his bleeding wound a couple of times and then looked innocently startled when he yelped in pain. He was definitely going to have to return the favor.

His brain tried to bring up the memory of her lightly caressing the back of his neck, her breath brushing his skin and he flushed, slamming the memory away as hard as he could, determined not to think about it ever again.

He rubbed the back of his neck, kicking a tree branch out of his way and scowling at Granger's back.

He could tie her up and leave her out for the bugs. See how she liked it. The only thing stopping him was that he didn't have any rope.

Too bad. Though he supposed he could always just break one of her legs.

The thought caused a twisted grin to curl his lips.

It wasn't necessary as of yet. He'd won their latest round in the end. The butterfly was now flitting about in hell and Granger was sweating over his declaration of war, probably wondering what exactly he was going to do to her.

It was kind of fun watching Granger struggle to play the game and fail miserably. That she was trying to play at all was kind of interesting. She wasn't doing very good but she was doing better than he thought she would. She'd managed to surprise him more than once today. He couldn't believe that she'd actually meant to ditch him this morning or that it had crossed her mind to hold the bug repellent ransom and the revelation that she'd been planning all afternoon to spike his food was just alarming enough to be exciting. He wasn't at all sure she'd actually do it, it seemed completely at odds with prim, proper, holier-than-thou, Head  
Girl Granger but he was going to have to watch her a bit more carefully from now on anyway.

How the hell did she know about his Chudley Cannons poster?

He wondered what she would do now?

Would she go all out with this war business? Or would she scramble to find some way to placate him?

It didn't matter what she did. In the end, it was all just one great big mind fuck. All he cared about was relieving his own boredom. She just happened to be his best source of entertainment. He was sick of the fucking forest, sick of the trees, the bugs, the endless walking, of having nothing to eat. The only pleasure he'd gotten in days was in taking out his misery on her.

He wondered if she believed him about the wyvern.

She had probably convinced herself that it was a lie. He hoped she had, because that would make it really incredibly funny when she found out he'd been telling the truth.

He had seen one, a big armored lizard with red scales, yellow eyes and wicked batwings. Talking about it, he'd acted much cooler then he actually felt. He definitely did not want to run into that thing again. It had scared the shit out of him and he'd seen it from a distance. He apparently didn't know the half of it because just the mention of it had Granger shaking like a leaf.

In any case, he hoped that was the last wyvern he would see. Ever.

Draco stretched his arms above his head, arching his back with a yawn. He was sick of walking. He was about ready for a rest and was sort of surprised that Granger hadn't dropped yet. She was just kind of plodding along, slow and steady like, and it was getting on his nerves.

The trees were growing sparse around them and the ground was becoming sandy. Granger was taking them into some kind of gully. He frowned and turned a circle while he walked. This was weird. The ground was grainy, freshly turned soil, dirt walls were rising on either side of them.

Were they even going in the right direction?

Dumb bitch. Probably hadn't looked at her compass since they left the clearing.

" Hey fluffy, where the hell are we going?"

Granger glanced back at him blankly and pointed forward as if to say 'this way, duh'.

Dumb ugly skank.

The ground began to slope downwards slightly as the walls rose. The sandy earth sunk beneath his feet. Granger walked forward without care but Draco stopped short, some warning feeling of discomfort stirring in his belly. There was a sheer wall about two hundred feet directly in front of him. So the damn gully was a dead end. What the hell were they walking down here for?

Granger stopped and looked back at him impatiently.

" Where are we going?" he demanded.

She said nothing.

Something bothered him about the way she was standing. Unease coiled deep inside him.

"This better not be one of your stupid tricks."

Granger pointed forward again.

" SAY SOMETHING!" he shouted at her.

She gazed at him passively, staring right through him.

This had to be some little scheme she cooked up. Well, she was about to get her ass kicked for screwing with him.

He took two threatening steps forward and jerked to a halt as the ground beneath him trembled.

What the fucking hell…

" Granger…" He stared at her and realized suddenly, the hair erecting on the back of his neck, that though she was standing in the soft earth, she had left no footprints in the soil.

And in the distance someone was shouting.

Draco jerked around, listening intently. Another person! He couldn't believe it.

For a moment he thought he'd lost the sound, but it came again, very faintly.

" Maaaalfoy…"

Another person who knew his name? No… that sounded like Granger.

Very slowly he turned to face the girl standing at the heart of the gully. She was watching him, not paying any attention at all to the shouting. She beckoned him forward.

He concentrated on what the far away voice was saying.

" Malfoy! It's a trick! Malfoy! That's not me! Get away from her! Wherever she's taking you, don't go!"

That was definitely Granger and he'd been right. This was a trap.

The ground trembled again. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Get away, huh? All fine and well except he was afraid to move.

The gully was a dead end, there was nothing in front of him except the Granger doppelganger. But he knew, with a cold certainty, that there was something else here, something he couldn't see. There had to be. Why else lead him here?

Very slowly, he reached down and touched the hilt of his knife.

It warmed under his fingers, quicker and hotter than before. The warmth against his hand didn't startle him like before, now it was comforting. It was heat, energy. Isn't that what Borgin had said? That it would absorb the energy around it? He could only assume that since he wore the knife and used it, that it was his energy making the blade hot, it was his, ready to use and full of possibilities.

His fingers wrapped around the hilt firmly and he drew the blade from the sheath. The warmth spread up his arm and instantly the scene before him changed.

The Granger doppelganger disappeared, vanished like a mirage and he saw what made the ground shake.

Holy…Shit…

Fifty feet in front of him in the sunken ground was a huge hole, a burrow, and something enormous was waiting just inside. It could have been a giant spider, but it wasn't. Maybe it was just part spider. Four humongous, sickly thin spider legs poked out of the den, two on each side of the entrance. The things head looked something like a huge skinned cat's head, red and taut with muscle, but that didn't being to describe it. It had three large multi-faceted eyes that he was certain were fixed on him. Its jaw hung slack, each of its fangs were probably as long as his arm, drooling strands leaking out dripping and burning on the ground and some sort of yellow smoke billowed out with each breath.

It was the ugliest sonovabitch he'd ever see.

He was a dead man.

He didn't know what the fuck that thing was, but he was betting it would have him before he could make it out of the gully.

He began to back away slowly, eyes locked on the monster. The thing tensed, he saw it go still and ready, jaws closing, like a cat about to pounce. He was scared shitless but he suddenly felt a wicked smile curve his mouth and he knew it wasn't his own. His eyes flicked to the knife in his hand for just a split second, and the monster exploded out of its den.

Draco screamed, scuttling backwards as fast as he could, not daring to turn his back. Two of the spider legs came at him with barbed tips, apparently to impale him. One leg missed him, the other came right at him. He swung the knife as hard as he could, and, amazingly, the blade sliced cleanly through the leg when it should have, by all rights, bounced off the scaly armor.  
Two more legs came at him and Draco careened backwards and slammed into the wall, a sudden wave of dizziness and nausea overtaking him. He hit the dirt on his butt, clenching the dagger in both hands, heart pounding in his throat, unable to get enough breath. He was a sitting duck. The creature lunged for him, scrabbling it legs, tearing up the ground in front of him but it never came any closer. He just sat there in a dazed stupor, frozen in shock.

The monster screamed in fury and then suddenly went still. His eyes were huge as they locked on the beast. It was half out of its den, supported, as far as he could tell, by its spider legs. It held its wounded leg, dripping some vile black fluid, off the ground, as if not exactly sure what to do with it. If the wound hurt it at all, Draco couldn't tell. The glittering eyes were locked on him but the monster held perfectly still.

Why wasn't he dead? Why hadn't it killed him?

Then he realized it couldn't. It was unable to leave its den fully. From about the middle of its back down it was either too big to come out or attached to its den somehow. It couldn't actively hunt. It wouldn't have used a lure if it could. Its prey needed to be within lunging distance of its burrow.

The boy gulped hard, his head throbbing. The monster's nearest leg was about ten feet away and that was stretched all the way out. He was out of striking distance.

Very carefully, he tried to stand, only to flop back down again. His whole body felt weak, boneless, like a ragdoll. This was embarrassing! Why the fuck was he suddenly so weak? Was he in shock? No way, he wasn't that much of a pussy. Maybe that monster let off poison or something and he'd breathed it in.

He tried to stand again and the world spun.

I will not throw up. I will not throw up.

He collapsed back down and the monster tensed again, head bobbing slightly and Draco could see that it was just dying to lunge, just wishing it could move a little further out. He was still entirely too close to it for his peace of mind. He began to scoot clumsily backwards on the ground, still facing the creature. He could almost see the disappointment on its face as its dinner dragged himself away.

He managed, just barely, to drag himself far enough away from the monster's burrow that the creature gave up and sank back inside its den. Draco didn't sheath his knife till he was certain the thing wasn't coming back out and then he had to kind of peel his fingers off the grip. He'd been clutching it so tight his knuckles were white. He sat, hunched over and panting, for nearly fifteen minutes until the strange weakness began to fade and he felt a little bit of strength return to his limbs.

When his head had stopped throbbing, he forced himself to get moving. Granger was still screaming her fool head off somewhere in the background but he couldn't pinpoint the direction.

" GRANGER!" he bellowed, "WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU, BITCH?"

Silence.

Then an excited, "MALFOY! I'M OVER HERE!"

Oh, that helped.

" GO SOUTH UNTIL YOU REACH THE STREAM!"

" WHICH STREAM?" He shouted just to be difficult.

She didn't dignify that with an answer.

Weary to his bones, Draco plodded towards the stream, completely devoid of his usually limitless, hyperactive energy, though he did seem to be getting stronger the further away he got from the monster's den. When he finally staggered out of the brush towards the sound of a trickling creek, one look at the cool clear water had him flopping down on his belly to drink, completely disregarding Granger's lecture on sphagnum moss. He didn't care if he got sick, he needed water. He hadn't realized until that moment how parched his throat was. He drank until his stomach hurt and splashed his face, rinsing away dirt and sweat.

He slopped his wet hair back, water dripping down his face.

" GRANGER! I'M AT THE STREAM!"

She answered immediately, her voice sounding a lot closer.

" YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO TELL WHICH DIRECTION I'M IN NOW!"

Draco spun towards the sound of her voice. She was to the west of him.

" JUST FOLLOW THE CREEK!"

He hiked upstream, following the twisting ribbon of water until he caught sight of black robes and bushy hair and a pale anxious face. A strange feeling washed through him, and it took him a moment to realize, to his amazement and utter embarrassment, that he was relieved to see her, that there was a measure of safety in her presence and he was grateful to have it back. Granger's eyes swept over him brusquely, checking him for injuries but she didn't approach him.

When he seemed to be all in one piece, her expression turned fierce.

" Hurry up and get over here!" she snapped, "I've got to close the circle."

What? Ah, forget it. At this point, he didn't give a shit.

He trudged past her and saw her sprinkle what looked like leaves and bark over the area he'd just passed through.

" There." She said with satisfaction, brushing her hands off on her robes.

Draco found a place to sit and sank down before his knees could give way, " Do you have any idea how crazy that looked?"

She whirled, ready to lay into him and froze, her eyes going wide. Draco felt a jolt go through him when she faced him fully, his jaw going slack in shock.

Several things struck Draco at once. One being that the girl in front of him was incredibly lovely and two being that she did not look a thing like the doppelganger he'd followed to the monster's nest.

And that didn't make any sense at all.

It had been Granger he followed. He'd looked the mirage in the face and seen Granger. But here was the real Granger and there was absolutely no comparison between the two. The mirage had been dull and homely, bordering on ugly. This girl, looking wild and wind-kissed, was beautiful, even with the film of sweat and smudge of dirt on her nose.

Granger seemed just as stunned as he felt. They stared at each other in mutual fascination for a moment before they both simultaneously turned away.

Granger's cheeks were pink.

" What happened to you anyway?" her voice was slightly strained.

" No, first tell me what you were doing." It came out defensively, almost harshly.

" Oh, I…when we left the clearing we left behind our protection. I was thinking I could make sort of an amateur circle of protection using the essence of other protective trees and anchoring the circle to one or more living protective trees. I used…"

Draco waved his hand, cutting her off," Get to the point."

Granger risked a quick irritated glance at him, then sighed, " Monsters bad. Ash tree good. Circle protect. Yay!"

Draco snickered, eyes shut as he leaned his head back against the tree behind him, "Got it."

" Now what happened?"

" How did you know something was wrong?" again he evaded her question.

Granger made an impatient noise. She found a place to sit across from him, still refusing to look at him and grabbed her backpack, hauling it into her lap to fish through it, " Well, I didn't at first. I was just walking and you were following me and then I got to the stream and you were just standing there and I realized it wasn't you."

" How did you realize it wasn't me?" he cracked an eye open to glare at her suspiciously.

" I fell on my face and you didn't laugh." Her tone was dry.

" Definitely not me." He smirked.

" Exactly. I realized it was some sort of visual enchantment and washed my face in the water. Then the image was gone. I figured if a mirage-Malfoy was following me then you were following a mirage-me. I was right?"

Draco nodded, " Yeah, you…or it…or whatever led me to this hole in the ground with a giant-ass monster inside. A real big, ugly mother fucker."

" What did it look like?"

" It had spider legs and like a cat head but no fur, more like spikes and scales. It had three eyes, big ones, like fly eyes, and it tried to stab me with its legs. It couldn't come all the way out of its den, though, or it would have killed me."

Granger was silent for a moment, " Did it breathe yellow smoke?"

Draco felt his lip curl, suspicion gnawing in his belly, "Yes."

" It was an antlion. I've never seen one of course but I've read about them and…"

" You know an awful lot for someone who wasn't there." He growled, accusingly.

Something was wrong with this picture. There was no way she could have just figured everything out by guessing.

" Huh?"

" You just sort of guessed that I was being led somewhere. Guessed that it was a visual enchantment. Why would something that caused people to be led somewhere enchant you so you were being followed?"

" Malfoy…"

" Fuck." He was on his feet, anger coursing through him in black waves, "You set me up, didn't you."

" I what?" her voice turned sharp.

" You've thought about nothing all day except getting revenge on me. This was one of your stupid payback schemes, wasn't it?"

Granger was on her feet and yelling, " Malfoy, will you listen to yourself! You're crazy! When did I have time to go out and find an antlion? How would I manage to get it to enchant you and not me?"

" You could have found it when I was gone for three days!"

She started to yell and stopped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she tried again," Malfoy," she began slowly, as if he were very stupid, " If I wanted to kill you, I'd poison you. It would be much simpler then finding some giant monster to eat you and risk it eating me too. And for the record, I have no intentions of killing you. I figure you'll suffer more if you live."

Touché. Every second in her presence was suffering. Okay, so maybe he was overreacting a bit but still, she knew too much for his peace of mind.

" This is exactly what I was talking about." The girl closed her eyes tiredly, rubbing the bridge of her nose, " We're going to spend the next couple of days completely paranoid and completely suspicious of each other and jumping out of our skins because…"

" Don't say it Granger," he growled, "We're not having a truce."

" Fine." She flung up her hands up in disgust, "But don't jump on me every time a pinecone falls and scream that I tried to kill you."

She picked up her backpack and walked back towards the stream where she'd set up camp. A small fire was burning, filling the air with sweet scented smoke.

Draco followed her.

" By the way," she began, her back to him, "it might be a good idea from now on for you to stick close by, instead of running off all the time. Just until we find a place to camp anyway. That way, if you disappear I'll have a general idea of where to search."

" Fuck that, I can take care of myself."

She turned towards him, honey-brown eyes narrow and stalked over to him, "Oh yeah? Well I wish that were true, because from over here it seems like you're turning out to be much more trouble then you're worth." She poked him in the belly and he jerked back, gasping in astonishment, "So cut the Captain Adventure routine and stop trying to get yourself killed."

His hand flew to his stomach, a startled scowl on his face, completely taken aback by what he knew to be, coming from her, an incredibly bold move. She gave him a cheeky smile and walked away.

" Bitch." He muttered, just to be saying something.

She was really pretty. As pretty as, if not prettier, than Pansy. Though Pansy was attractive in a sharp, high fashion way, all hard angles and bright colors, glitz and glamour. The girl in front of him had a softer beauty, made of smoky eyes, candlelight and velvet.

This was really creeping him out. Was this another trick? If Granger really looked like this, how come he'd never noticed before?

He asked, before he could stop himself, because he had to know, he blurted, " Did the mirage-me look weird, like it wasn't really me?"

Granger's eyes flicked to his than quickly away. He saw her pause, go still in a way that he knew meant she was thinking her answer over very carefully.

" I thought it was you." She said finally, " I thought it looked exactly like you. But now that you're here, I realize it didn't look like you at all."

He opened his mouth, shut it, " How can that even be possible? How could you see something that doesn't look at all like me and think it looks exactly like me?"

Granger was silent a long time, " I think…well, it was a visual enchantment. Our brains created the mirages that we saw. I think… I think what we saw was not the visual reality, it was just based on visual reality. Like, what I saw was my brain's perception of you, not the real you, but how I perceive you subconsciously in my mind." She turned and looked him in the eye, "To put it bluntly, our hatred for one another skews our brain's perception of each other."

He sat down next to the fire, digesting her words, " What was different about the mirage-me?" he asked finally.

Granger seemed to debate whether or not to answer him, then shrugged, " You were bigger, meaner and uglier than you really are."

" Oh." His lips twisted in a sneer, " Well, I saw a troll then and I see a troll now."

She sighed, " That's nice, Malfoy. Here." She reached into her bag, pulled out a fruit and tossed it to him, "This'll shut you up."

He was too hungry to refuse the food.

She continued watching him with the same look on her face that she'd had the entire time she'd studied the Shutoeis. A kind of cool, quizzical, scientific gaze.

She tapped her lips once and straightened.

" This is actually really interesting. I would love to study how our views of the world change our perception of reality. Like the way you were raised, with Voldemort practically shoved down your throat since you were a baby..."

He choked on his fruit, swallowing quickly.

" Shut the fuck up. You don't know anything about me."

She made the mistake of trying to placate him by explaining herself further," I'm just saying that with everything they've been drilling into your head…"

He cut her off again, yelling, " Don't you dare act like I'm some kind of poor, brainwashed sap! I have a mind of my own. I believe what I believe because I figured out for myself that it was true not because my father, or anyone else, told me what to believe and I decided to blindly follow them."

She squirmed uncomfortably, her voice hesitant, " I'm not talking about on a conscious level. I'm talking about stuff they told you when you were very small, in conversations you can't even remember. The way they are, I think its amazing that you even see a human being when you look at me."

" MUGGLES AREN'T HUMAN." He shouted and she jerked backwards with a start.

He glared at her in utter loathing, giving her all his disgust and hatred and frustration. She stared back at him, her face oddly neutral.

" So I'm not human." She said slowly, evenly.

" Muggles aren't human." He repeated, biting the words off.

For just a split second, so fast he nearly missed it, she looked like she was about to cry, but just like that it was gone and she gave him a long appraising look, the scientist look.

" So I was right the first time." She murmured and turned her back on him, walking away.

Draco was on his feet in an instant, enraged without really knowing why," But I notice you didn't disagree with me about the Muggles." He shouted after her, "So, what, you agree with me? Aren't you going to defend yourself? Tell me how deluded I am? Aren't you going to strike a self-righteous pose and tell me that your blood is as red as my own? Or maybe that we're all brothers on the inside? C'mon Muddy, this is pathetic even for you."

But she wouldn't answer and she didn't speak to him again that night.  
  



	9. Two Eyes from the East

_We're off to the witch_   
_We may never never never come home_   
_But the magic that we'll feel_   
_Is worth a lifetime_   
_Two eyes from the east_   
_It's the angel or the beast_   
_And the answer lies between_   
_The good and bad_   
_We search for the truth_   
_We could die upon the tooth_   
_But the thrill of just the chase_   
_Is worth the pain_   
_We'll know for the first time_   
_If we're evil or divine_   
_We're the last in line_   
_We're the last in line_   
_excerpts from Dio's "Last in Line"_

oooo

  
He dreamed.

  
Maybe it was the full moon in the sky, or maybe he slept under the bows of an ancient sickle elm, maybe it was the hour in which he slept, or the influence of some beast or specter that happened by. It could have been so many things. He dreamed so many things.

  
He wouldn't remember any of it when he woke.

He relived the entire day. But not as himself. He watched instead. He watched from the greedy eyes of an alien mind, as the two children tramped through the forest like Hansel and Gretel.

He was back at Hogwarts, seated at his desk in a classroom full of Slytherins. Snape stood at the front. The scene was curiously frozen, like he was seeing a moment captured in time. Paradoxically, he could sense the movement and hear the sounds of shuffling papers around him.

" How many kinds of curses are there?" Snape asked, his voice echoing oddly in the empty stillness.

" Hexes?" asked someone.

Draco rose dreamily and walked towards the door, footsteps echoing on the stone floor. Granger wasn't in the classroom.

Where was she?

He followed the two children, spending time with both of them, getting to know them, still unable to reach them but eager to watch in any case. He watched Granger hike along by herself. He saw Draco alone among the trees.

Snape stood before a roaring hearth with an old photograph in his hands, "My graduating class. He tore us apart..."

Sky looked up at Draco, sobbing brokenly, " I want my dad."

Rodolphus Lestrange stood beside Granger in the dark forest, "Here, I'll help you."

He touched the compass and the needle spun wildly. Granger's eyes remained fixed on the needle as she glided in a slow-motion walk into the darkness where the wild things danced and howled, her robes billowing around her, her hair blowing about her face in some unnatural wind. The unicorns screamed, flailed wildly and died, falling to the ground in bloody heaps.

Harry Potter turned around, his expression livid with hate, "Stay away from her."

His own voice, rich with laughter, " I don't think she wants me to."

He was walking through the halls of Hogwarts. Where was Granger?

Snape's voice again, "It has happened before. People vanish and no one ever discovers what became of them…"

He turned towards the sound of the voice only to see a boy he didn't know standing in the corridor.

A boy with empty black holes where his eyes should be.

" Where are we going?" he asked Granger as the castle drifted away from them, drifted further away the further they walked.

She looked up at him, face solemn," The only way back is forward."

He watched Draco pounce the young girl and twist her arm and he laughed in soundless amusement.

He stood before a silver gilt mirror, staring at the boy behind the glass. His reflection screamed at him in silent fury and slammed his fists into the mirror until it shattered. The pieces of glass exploded outward then slowed until they twisted and turned in the air and he could count every glittering, jagged piece. They cut him to ribbons.

In the sunlit forest, two boys about his own age beckoned to Granger. They urged her on, herded her forward. She ran with them and one of them took her arm to lead her on.

" Come see the God. He's our God. He'll be your God too." They chanted.

The dial of the compass spun wildly and the creature that was Draco watching Draco and Granger laughed and Draco shoved Granger into the alley and darkness fell but the moon would never rise again and the two boys rotted like carrion under the sun and somewhere far away in that darkness Granger wept softly. But she wasn't the only one.

Silence. Darkness.

" They've crossed over." Dumbledore whispered.

" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Draco jerked upright, screaming, as gallons of icy, blood-chilling water drenched his head, like someone had just dunked him under a waterfall.

" Rise and shine, sleeping beauty." A girl's voice drawled.

He knew that voice.

" FUUUUUUUUUUCK! Granger I'm gonna kill you!" he screamed hoarsely, shivering violently as he wiped water from his eyes, spat it from his mouth and tried to drain what felt like gallons that had gone up his nose, "What the fuck is your problem, you psycho!"

He opened his eyes to find her standing over him, her expression stony, his cauldron tucked under her arm.

" You stupid cunt!" he spat.

Her eyebrows went up, she lifted the cauldron and he barely had time to lurch out of the way with a startled yelp as she let it drop right where his head had been.

It hit the ground with a heavy 'thunk'.

" Get up!" she barked, "Eat something and lets go. We should have left hours ago. I've been sitting here waiting for you to get your lazy butt up since dawn. I want to go home right now and if you're not ready in five minutes, so help me, I'm leaving without you!"

" Damn, Muddy, what the hell crawled up your ass and died?" he yelled back, wavering somewhere between towering rage and utter amazement.

" Four minutes, thirty seconds, you snotty little dickwad."

His jaw dropped, completely thrown by her aggressive and agitated behavior, " Shit, Granger, what the fuck is wrong with you? You gotta be on the rag or something."

Her shoulders stiffened just the tiniest bit.

Draco's eyes bulged, " That's it, isn't it. I'm right."

A second later he'd collapsed on the ground howling with laughter until he was clutching his stomach as tears streamed down his face.

" Shut up! Shut up you idiot!" her voice was shrill with anger.

Draco peeked at her and saw her face was beet red. That set him off again.

She gave a wordless cry of frustration and he scrambled to his feet to avoid being smashed over the head with his own cauldron.

" Okay! Okay!" he giggled, holding a placating hand out in front of him and making a very conscious effort to calm himself, "Okay, I'll stop." He choked and bit his lip to keep in the snorts of laughter that wanted to break out, "I'll eat and we'll get going. Just calm down, Hormone-y."

She shrieked and chased him into the woods.

He didn't return for a good forty-five minutes. He could easily have stretched it out to an hour and a half but the sun was fairly high in the sky. Granger hadn't been kidding when she said he'd slept in late.

Considering her mood, he expected her to scream at him for wasting time when he finally returned to their campsite, clean and damp and shivering from his morning preening, but she sat staring down at her feet and didn't even look up at him, seemingly lost in her own dark thoughts.

" Hey! Hey! Do we have any food?"

She pointed wordlessly to her bag where she'd left some food sitting out on her folded robe. He flopped down to eat, glancing at her furtively every once in awhile. He still couldn't believe she'd had the balls to wake him up by trying to drown him. He didn't care how bad she was PMSing, that had been damn near suicidal on her part. He wasn't exactly a friendly person in the morning.

" What was up with that shit you pulled this morning, kiddo?" He asked, tone holding a hint of warning, "You act like you want me to kick your ass."

She raised her eyes slowly to give him a long, cold stare, "We're at war, remember. I'm not going to sit around and wait for you to attack. I figured I might as well take the first shot."

Stunned, he gave a short surprised laugh, "Didn't know you had it in you."

Well, well, Granger wanted to lock horns with him. This was interesting. He grinned at her.

She gave him a very odd look just as he bit into a thick, waxy leaf-like thing. The juices hit his tongue and he wretched, spitting and cursing and scrambling over to the stream to wash his mouth out.

" Don't eat that, it's the bug repellent." Granger said coolly from behind him.

" You nasty little mud-sucking freak…" he coughed in amazement, "What the fuck has gotten into you?"

" Would you have stopped me from eating it?" she asked airily.

Hell no…

" Yes!" he said adamantly as if it was obvious and he was outraged that she would think otherwise.

" Is this lying about everything deal a Slytherin thing, a Malfoy thing or just a you thing?" Her tone was flat and calm with something cold and biting just beneath the surface.

He turned to face her and she returned his look witheringly, her eyes hard and focused and predatory in a way that hadn't ever been before. This sudden behavioral about-face was unexpected and he considered her with an edge of caution. They both knew that she'd be better off if she just took what he dished out and didn't retaliate. Instead she was courting his wrath, big time.

It wasn't like her, or at least what he knew of her. He could count on one hand the number of times she'd retaliated against him back at Hogwarts. She always maintained that she wouldn't 'sink to his level' or some shit like that. She'd always insisted, no matter what he said or did, that her and her friends should just ignore him.

This wasn't PMS. She was pissed, really pissed, about something. Most likely about what he'd said last night.

Well fuck it, if she couldn't handle the truth that was her problem.

He answered seriously," Its something I do just for you." And that was the truth. Really, there were a lot of things he did just for her. Granger was special. He'd go to greater lengths to terrorize her than anyone else he knew…even Potter.

The thought made him grin.

The hardness in her eyes wavered with unease at his, very likely disturbing, expression and she retreated, snagging her backpack and trotting off into the woods without another word.

That was more like it. She might play tough, but the act wouldn't last long.

" Shit." He muttered, jumping up to grab his cauldron and stumbling slightly before jogging after her.

That first entire day of hiking passed nearly without incident. The difficulty of the terrain had increased slightly and they were both too preoccupied to worry about private skirmishes. The trek hadn't been too arduous as of yet, but neither of them knew that. They had little to compare the terrain to except the flat town roads they walked along back home. They weren't nearly as grateful for the easy going as they should have been. Draco wasn't grateful at all.

No, pretty damn miserable was more like it.

Half the day was spent going uphill until his calves were screaming in pain and his lower back ached. He hadn't been sore when he woke up that morning, which had been a nice change since he'd been sore and stiff every morning before then, but he was betting he was going to be sore again tomorrow.

They had to detour at one point when their path got too steep and they were faced with finding a way around a sheer cliff that went straight up in front and straight down on the other side. That had chaffed. They wasted over an hour looking for the best route down and around, having to double back several times when they met dead-ends or drop-offs.

They went through areas of underbrush so thick that Draco had to take the lead and hack them a way through with his dagger. Afterwards he 'd walked around with the dagger unsheathed, just running his fingers over the hilt and up and down the blade until he finally realized what he was doing and that Granger was staring at him and he quickly stuffed the knife away.

Several times during their trip Granger suddenly, for seemingly no reason at all, made them both duck behind a tree or scuttle into some underbrush and hold still. They never actually saw anything and Draco almost decided she was doing it just to jerk him around but the fear on her face was real enough to keep him quiet.

As the day progressed, the land around them seemed to get drier, hotter and rockier. The density of trees thinned out and the foliage under their feet crackled and kicked up dust instead of squishing damply. It wasn't even noon when the heat forced them to take off their robes, stuff them away and roll up their sleeves.

The air was thick with heat and alive with humming insects and the sap from the bug repellent they wore heated with their skin and the smell gave them both headaches.

After awhile Draco regretted wearing the bug repellent at all. A few bug bites was a small price to pay compared to the overwhelming stench of the hot repellent.

No matter how bad he felt though, he could always take comfort in the fact that Granger was even worse off than him. She seemed to have a harder time in general. He wasn't surprised. Strenuous physical activity wasn't exactly her strong point. Her idea of exercise was carrying her books from class to class.

Yesterday had been her first real day of hiking, she had probably been sore this morning and it was going to be worse tomorrow. Still, she kept going without so much as a peep of complaint and some part of him very deep down that he would never acknowledge could almost respect that.

Almost, but not quite.

She was giving him the silent treatment.

" Once this is over I'm personally going to come back here and torch this place. A nice big Fuck You to mother nature. Then I'm going to cut down all the trees in my yard, build a bonfire, strip down, smear myself with war-paint, hunt down all my neighbor's House-Elves and pets, roast the carcasses and give 'em to hungry muggles. Aw, I'm such a nice guy."

The frizz-haired girl striding along in front of him didn't so much as twitch. Granger hadn't responded to a thing he said since they left the campsite, speaking only when her internal encyclopedia chimed in.

Draco scowled at the back of her bedraggled, yet still fluffy, head.

Her shoulders were rigid, her chin up, eyes staring fixedly forward. All she needed was a shirt with the words 'I'm ignoring you, Draco Malfoy' across the back.

The bitch of it was that she wasn't trying to keep the peace, which he would have found kind of funny. Oh no. All her good-natured patience and long-suffering helpfulness had vanished long before the sun rose. This was deliberate provocation on her part. In keeping with the mood she'd set this morning, she was asking for a fight.

He stalked along quietly behind her, keeping out of her peripheral vision, just staring at the back of her head until she grew so nervous that she darted ahead.

He enjoyed her discomfort but it pissed him off that she wasn't talking to him. He had decided she was right about him sticking around with her while they hiked.

He had agreed to put up with her presence for the entire day and he expected some sort of compensation for his suffering, like when he decided to say something, she should say something back, when he decided to call her names, she should cry and yell at him. That was the way of things. But she wasn't cooperating.

Draco Malfoy was a social creature by nature. He enjoyed the company of, and interaction with, other human beings. To a certain extent he even craved it. It was extremely unfortunate for him that the only sentient being around that might actually listen to and comprehend what he was saying was Granger. And talking to her was like talking to a brick wall…a brick wall whose main contribution to a conversation was occasionally spouting passages from textbooks.

" So, Granger, how many people do you think are glad you're gone? Want me to list them?" he cleared his throat and began in his lecturing voice, " First of all, I think Potty and Weasel will be happy you're gone. Now they can both come out of the closet and express their eternal love for each other in a disgusting physical fashion…GAH!"

A brick wall that also periodically threw rocks at him.

" If that thing had hit me, you'd be in so much trouble right now!"

She continued on, nose in the air haughtily, leaving him standing there in mid-threat.

At least he'd gotten some sort of reaction from her this time. Honestly, if she didn't want to play these games with him, she shouldn't start them.

He kept up a steady complaining monologue throughout the day centered around everything that bothered him: her, the forest, her friends, her parents, her hair, how angry his father was going to be, her hair, how she owed him for this, how she should be grateful he graced her with his presence, her hair, the general state of the wizard economy and how mudbloods and muggles were responsible for last year's decline in living standards etc. etc.

She suffered it all in silence though he was almost certain a couple times that she was on the verge of snapping and attacking him. That was his current goal:

Make Granger snap.

She didn't snap, apparently she retained a bit of fortitude that hadn't as of yet been drained away by hunger or exhaustion so the brawl that was on the verge of happening all day, never happened and the only real incident was the frog.

The talking frog.

It sounded funny, like a charms experiment gone bad. Like the time someone (someone whose name started with D and ended with Raco) made that pathetic oaf Longbottom's toad swallow a packet of Screaming Mimi's. The toad had screamed insults at everyone that it saw for weeks, the highlight being when it told McGonagall to 'shave the beard you old scag'. It had been a riot.

This wasn't like that. This hadn't been funny at all.

Granger had called him over, grudgingly breaking her silence at last in early afternoon when she found running water. They always stopped to drink when they found water and if they didn't find water by late afternoon, they went looking for it. The stream was slightly to the east of them and ran its course at the bottom of a sloping hill. The edges were thick with tulle and cattails.  
Draco had been digging sphagnum moss out of Granger's pack when the girl spoke.

" Hey…something smells kind of funny." She leaned over the stream, nose crinkling," I think it might be the water…" she sounded mystified.

He dropped her bag and wandered over to investigate. The smell had been light at first, a sort of dank, bitter decay smell.

" It smells like old pond, like stagnant water, but this water's moving, it should be fresh."

" Maybe it comes from an old pond." Draco shrugged. It was an unspoken agreement forged sometime when he hadn't been paying attention that anything at all even slightly out of the ordinary was immediate cause for regrouping.

" Yeah…" she seemed uneasy, "Maybe we should keep moving."

He opened his mouth to protest when something broke the surface of the water at the edge of the stream with a slurping gurgle and filthy, rotting, black liquid spewed up along with something large and slimy that thrashed against the oily mud of the shore, making a terrible squealing sound. The smell increased ten fold.

Granger screamed and stumbled back, staring in horror. Draco found himself unable to move.

The squealing thing flopped onto the muddy bank and began wiping itself with rubbery front legs. The frog was big, its body about the length of his palm, but it was bony, ridges along its back and ribs nearly bursting through taught slimy flesh. The frog turned huge yellow eyes on Draco, eyes that wept some viscous yellow fluid. It looked right at him.

He couldn't breath. He felt sick.

He'd been wrong, it wasn't a frog. There was no way in hell that thing was a frog. Some part of him knew it. Some part, deep down, knew in a way that wasn't logic and couldn't be explained that this thing wasn't a frog, had never been a frog and wasn't even distantly related to a frog, magic or otherwise.

The hair on the back of his neck was standing on end.

The frog's squealing mouth opened wider, " Re'loiuth Eedai Mevnox. Re'loiuth Eedai Mevnox."

Its voice was a croaking burble but the words were clear and precise and burned through his mind like poison.

" It…its talking." Granger whimpered, she sounded close to tears.

There was something in its words. Something terrible in its words.

" What's it saying?" he choked out.

" I don't know! I don't want to know!" her voice rose in horror, "Malfoy, get away from it! Lets get out of here!"

Draco was still frozen, staring down at it as the thing convulsed with unnaturally fast jerks, almost like he was seeing life on fast forward.

"Re'loiuth Eedai Mevnox." Then it started squalling again, long wailing squeals.

" RUN!" Granger screamed and whatever held him captive broke.

He jerked back in panic and confusion, every instinct screaming for him to flee. He half turned in Granger's direction but then whirled back in sudden hot rageand slammed his foot down on the monster. Monster. It was a monster.  
It burst with a horrible crunch that he felt all the way to the top of his spine, squirting and spraying red, yellow and green slime on his boots and onto the hem of his robes. The smell was nearly overwhelming, making him yell and cover his mouth, his eyes watered and his vision spun.

Hands were grabbing him, Granger was wrenching him back and the two of them were running like hell, not daring to look back.

They found another stream further down and Draco spent a time trying to get the guts off his boot without actually touching the horrible stuff. The thing's blood had burned through the hem of his pants and left red welts on his legs. It took them both a bit to recover from the encounter. He thought Granger cried silently for a bit but he wasn't sure. He didn't say anything about it. Neither one of them brought it up again.

Later the whole thing would seem stupid, incredibly stupid and only half real. But all he had to do was picture those weeping, puss-filled eyes, remember that smell or that screaming squeal and he felt cold all over, icy fingers clenching around his heart.

He knew he was going to have nightmares about that frog.

The encounter seemed to put an end to the day's rivalry and they went on in brooding silence.

In late afternoon, before the sun set they found a place to camp. It had been a bad day for finding food and what small tidbits Granger had managed to garner from the land were hot and bruised. They ate them anyway and were still hungry afterwards. The girl cast a circle about them as she had the night before and he suffered through a lecture on how it worked. She set up a campfire and boiled water in his cauldron for washing. The steaming water was much more effective for washing than icy river water.

A little later as the evening cooled, Draco left without explanation to go hunting. He managed to catch two rabbits and cooked and ate them both with relish. He returned to camp with a full belly as the sun was setting and found Granger crashed out next to the fire, already asleep.

The next day was pretty much a repeat of the last, so much so that Draco wondered if he wasn't reliving the same fucking day all over again in stereo, only worse. Hotter, drier, sweatier, and even less food. He felt worse too. Sore, as he had predicted, hungry, and exhausted.

By the third day, the trees thinned out till they came to the edge of a dry, rocky, golden grassland that spread out to the east as far as they could see. There was a fair patch straight ahead of them but only for a quarter of a mile or so and then the forest thickened again dramatically.

Draco glanced back to see the Mudblood picking her way through some rocks a ways back, her knees skinned and raw.

" Hurry your slow ass up, Granger, you're falling behind!"

" Malfoy, lets stop for a minute."

" We just stopped a little while ago."

" Well, lets stop again."

" We're never going to get anywhere if you keep this up."

His words were strong but he was already trudging all too willingly back towards the tree line and collapsing to the ground in the shade of a large tree, relief flooding through his aching feet. Granger found a log and sat down, hauling her backpack off and setting it down between her legs to fish through it.

That's right. She had that huge thing on her back.

He couldn't help but smirk, congratulating himself on the lasting torment he'd inflicted.

" I'm thirsty, get out that water-stick thing." Draco commanded imperiously with a wave of his hand, leaning back against his tree.

Granger rolled her eyes, "Its hazel. I've only told you about a hundred times."

" I don't give a rat's ass what it is. Just find us some damn water, you damn Muggle. I'm so fucking thirsty I could.." he paused and sat up, narrow eyes turning on her.

" What?" she shifted uncomfortably under his intense gaze.

" Just thinking that if I get too thirsty I could always cut your throat and drink your blood."

" Stop it, Malfoy!" she yowled and jerked to her feet, storming away.

Draco snickered. Cor, she was too easy.

She returned from her foraging rather quickly, her expression grim.

" Where's my water, Fuzzball?"

She ignored the name-calling, " We've got a problem."

Her eyes flicked down to his hands almost absently and Draco followed her gaze down and realized with a start that he was holding his dagger. He didn't even remember pulling it out. With a prickle of unease he wondered how long he'd been playing with it.

He started to sheath it and hesitated. He wanted to hold it….

Shit.

He tucked it quickly away, disturbed.

Granger's eyes followed his movements.

" Stop that! I told you, you can't use it." he snarled at her, getting to his feet and stumbling slightly in a wave of vertigo.

She gave him a blank look, "Whatever, Malfoy."

" Shut up. What's the problem?"

To his surprise, she didn't lead him back into the trees, she turned to their original path and pointed out across the stretch of grassland straight ahead of them to the trees on the other side.

" See those trees?"

" Yeah, so?"

" We're going to have to go around them."

" What?" his jaw dropped, as his eyes followed the line of trees to the horizon in the east, " Why the fuck would we want to do that?"

" This would go a lot faster if you would just trust me."

He gave her a long level stare.

" Fine," she sighed, " over here." and she marched back the way she came.

Several minutes walk to the west, further into the trees the forest quite suddenly became dark and thick around them. A thick line of trees rose up in front of them like a living wall. Granger stopped well away from them and Draco saw that the trees had long tangled vines hanging down that swayed lazily in a nonexistent wind.

" I saw trees like these before." he frowned.

" You went around them." She made it a statement.

" Yeah."

Granger nodded, still looking at the vine trees, "That was intelligent of you. These are Tangle Trees. If you had walked in there those vines would have wrapped around your arms and legs and ripped you apart. If we went closer, we could probably see bones at the base of the trunks. These are the same trees out there past the grassland. We have to go around them."

Draco swallowed, remembering how he'd almost gone through the Tangle Trees when he first saw them.

" Why rip people apart?"

" Not just people, animals too. They're flesh eaters. Flesh-eating trees. They're said to grow in places where cursed items are buried. The deaths fuel the curse, make it stronger. I read about it in an advanced Herbology book."

Draco gave her a withering look, " I don't understand why you were so pissed that I made you leave your textbooks behind. You have the damn things memorized…HEY!"

A rock flew past his head. This one had actually been aimed at him instead of just thrown in his general direction like the others. He'd apparently hit a sore spot.

" Why you little bitch." He grinned darkly," Just for that you're going to take a closer look at your precious trees, Granger."

Her eyes went huge as she caught his meaning, "You wouldn't."

" You shouldn't be throwing rocks."

He took one step towards her and she hurled another rock at him and bolted, apparently not willing to call his bluff. He flung himself out of the way of her projectile and took off after her. He was surprised she could run like this after hiking all morning but she didn't get far, he was too fast.

He snagged her from behind, lifting her off her feet and she screamed.

Torture and entertainment, it certainly livened things up. He didn't remember that just a few days earlier he would have been disgusted by the mere thought of touching a Mudblood. It never occurred to him, before or after, that part of him wanted to touch her. Just to see what she'd feel like.

" Malfoy what are you doing?" she squealed in alarm as he locked his arms around her, trapping her arms against her sides and began dragging her towards the forest.

" You have to prove that they really do eat meat." He laughed evilly.

She was instantly thrashing in his grip, her voice high with panic, "Let me go right now! Get your disgusting hands off me!"

Her back was pressed to his chest and her hair was blocking most of his field of vision and tickling his face. Puffing slightly at the effort of holding her in place, he grinned wickedly, enjoying her terror and her high, piercing shrieked demands to be let go and the light scent of her hair and skin.

She jabbed her elbow into his side painfully and he grunted and tried to pin her arms but she was squirming too badly for him to get a good hold. She shrieked, kicking her feet and trying to punch him.

" They're just trees, Granger, right?"

" Lemmegolemmegolemmegolemmego!"

" Okay, I'll let you go. I'll just toss you in there. I don't want to get too close after all."

They were nearly to the edge of the vine forest and Draco could see the swaying vines twitching, the ones near the edge lifting, already starting to reach for them.

Shit, he didn't want to get too much closer.

" Look at them move." He purred.

Granger wailed and suddenly stopped trying to hit him and grabbed onto him instead, twisting to bury her face against his neck.

" If I go down, I'm taking you with me!" she cried, muffled against him.

He froze in surprise, feeling her hot breath panting against his throat, feeling her fingers clenching at his robes.

Suddenly the game wasn't fun anymore.

" Get off me." He yelled and shoved her away as if burned, letting her slam into the ground with a pained cry.

He retreated on the double, leaving her to sit there staring at the trees and breathing hard. He half expected her to throw another rock at him and he sort of wanted her to, it would give him an excuse to punch her. Damn her. Damn filthy muggle.

He was back at the resting spot, leaning against a tree, seething, when Granger showed up. Angry and embarrassed, he refused to look at her. He couldn't wait to get back home where he didn't have to look at Granger's ugly face ever again.

Granger eyed him for several long moments then made an exasperated sound and headed back towards the grassland without a word, snagging her backpack as she went. When he didn't immediately follow, she turned neutral eyes on him.

" Lets go. We don't have time to sit around. We can still make it home in time for school."

She was offering to forget what had just happened. She wouldn't bring it up if he didn't. That was fine with him.

" There's no way we're going to make it in time. We've got a long way to go, Mudblood." He squinted as they stepped out from the canopy into the bright grassland.

" We've been walking for days, we have to be close to something."

" Use that oversized cranium of yours! No one would live near those fucking killer trees. I think we're still out in the middle of nowhere. Probably further out in the middle of nowhere then before. Are you sure that compass works?"

" Shut up, Malfoy. You're just trying to start a fight again."

" If that compass doesn't work, I'm going to kick your ass."

" You keep saying that."

In a burst of rage, he shoved her, sending her flying face-first into the dirt. Sneering, he sauntered past her as she pushed up on her hands, spitting dirt. He should have been ready for retaliation and wasn't. A rock cracked into his shoulder blade with a jolt of white agony.

" FUCK!" he screamed, grabbing at his back and whirling around, "You fucking…" she was staring up into the sky, her face white as a sheet.

" MALFOY LOOK OUT!" she was stumbling back, diving for the trees.

A shadow fell over him and a sudden wind whipped his hair. His head snapped up to see the biggest fucking bird he had ever seen in his life. It looked like a crow only a thousand times bigger and it was bearing down on them like an owl that had spotted a couple of field mice. For half a second he was frozen and then he was moving without thinking. The dagger was suddenly in his hand, burning against his fingers, and he slashed upwards with everything he had.

And the dagger responded.

He felt the magic leave it, leave him. More, he saw the blade flash with wild light. He wasn't sure the blade ever touched the bird, in fact he was fairly certain the steel didn't get anywhere near the monster, but the power did and the bird screamed as its belly opened and blood splashed down on him in a hot, frothy wash.

The bird screeched and its wings pounded the air as it tried to escape. One of the wings hit him and sent him flying. Then the bird was airborne, retreating. The whole attack had lasted less than ten seconds.

Draco stared up into the sky in shock and watched until the bird was a tiny dot in the sky. He couldn't move his body. He felt weak. So weak. The world was fading away, growing gray and fuzzy and distant.

" Malfoy! Malfoy!"

A sharp stinging pain in his cheek told him Granger had just slapped the hell out of him. He rolled his head to the side to find her kneeling beside him. She slapped him again. He doubted that second slap was entirely necessary but he was in little condition to do anything about it.

" You stupid, idiotic jerk. You dumb blond. You're so lucky, do you hear me? You're.."

" What the hell was that thing?" he croaked.

" A roc."

" That wasn't no rock, girly-girl, that was a fucking big-ass birdy."

" R. O. C." she spelled, "They're called rocs. Get up. We have to get back under the trees before it comes back."

He tried to move and couldn't. " Can't get up." Everything was spinning.

She hauled him up and he leaned on her shakily until he realized what he was doing and then he tried to push her away but ended up nearly falling which only resulted in her holding him closer, almost flush up against her body. Mmm.

They made their way back and collapsed back into the shade and sat in silence for a long time, letting their frantic hearts slow, letting the world slowly come back into focus.

" You didn't tell me your knife was magic."

He shrugged, and then frowned at the inquisitive stare she was giving the bloody blade. Protectively, he tucked the knife to his side, hiding it from view. He didn't want to sheath it until it was clean.

" This is going to be harder than I thought." Granger mused, seemingly forgetting the knife once it was out of sight, " There's no cover in the grassland, no place to hide from big predators. No trees to anchor a circle of protection. We can't stay the night out there."

" I think we can make it to the other side before dark." He was feeling better now, a bit stronger.

" Are you up for it?"

" Hell yeah. I want to wash up and get something to drink."

She gave him an odd look.

" What?"

" Is it hydrating?"

" Huh?"

She touched her face pointedly. He brought his hands to his face and came away with blood.

" Ew. Try it."

He made like he was going to stick his bloody finger in his mouth.

" EEEAGH!" she squealed, scrambling away from him and covering her eyes, "That's disgusting!"

" Mmm, tasty. Want some?"

" You're sick!"

They did make it to the other side of the grasslands before dark and without being attacked by any more giant birds. The grove of trees they took cover under wasn't so much an outcropping of the forest as an oasis. A wide, wild river cut through the earth and the otherwise dry hills were covered with birch, willow and oak.

Granger yipped in delight when they reached the river and jumped right in, entirely clothed, while stuffing sphagnum in her mouth. Draco followed suit, wanting to wash the stains and rank smell of blood and sweat from his clothes. The water was freezing. It shocked him to the core but he welcomed it and gulped it down greedily, laughing his head off when Granger surfaced a few meters away coughing and sputtering, apparently having almost swallowed her sphagnum.

His laughter cut off in a choke when he got a good look at her, her hair plastered around her face in dark waves streaming with river water, her soaked white shirt clinging to her body. He could see right through it. She caught him looking at her and grinned innocently before diving back into the water.

Shit. If she were anyone else, he'd say she was doing it on purpose.

He turned his attention forcefully to washing his knife and glared at the dagger. It was warm in his hand again. Hotter than before.

Or maybe the water was just colder. He washed it off and felt rather pleased as he thought of the bird. The blade had saved his life again, he supposed it had earned the right to do whatever the hell it wanted. Within reason.

He wanted to tuck it away soon. He didn't like the way Granger had developed a habit of staring at it like a cat watching a string dangling tantalizingly in front of her face. He frowned. What was up with that? He'd thought at first she was scared of it or, more accurately, of him but she wasn't. More likely it was the scientist in her or maybe she just wanted it because he wouldn't let her touch it.

Or maybe she was just easily distracted by shiny objects.

Cor, sometimes that girl acted like a freaking maniac.

Draco pulled himself from the water, shivering and found a place to sit in the sun to dry off. Granger soon got tired of playing and found a place across from him to sit. He tried to keep his appreciative glances furtive, but she was making it hard to keep from downright staring by leaning back on her hands and tilting her head towards the sky.

" Do we have anything to eat?" He realized he was starving, absolutely shaking with hunger.

" Hmm?" she raised her head, squinting at him, " I dunno."

She fished through her bag and came up with a pitiful amount of food: one fruit and a meager handful of wilting berries. She smiled at him weakly and tossed him the fruit, the bigger share. She always did that, handed him the bigger portion without thought or hesitation.

Cor, he could hate her for that.

" I'm beginning to wonder if we really are in danger of starving to death." She said quietly.

" Could there be anything to eat around here?" he asked, taking a bite of the fruit, relishing the sweet juice that burst in his mouth.

" I doubt it, but I'm going to look anyway."

Granger's foraging provided less than a handful of food and he waited until she set up camp and was settled in for the evening before skulking off on his own to go hunting. He managed to catch a single scrawny rabbit but he was still so hungry afterwards that he actually lowered himself to hunting squirrels.

She was right, food was becoming a big problem, if only because nothing good to eat grew in the grasslands. This could be extremely bad for them if the grasslands happened to extend for another two days walk. If they were very lucky they'd be back in the heart of the forest by tomorrow evening and be able to find some serious grub.

The sun was down when he returned to camp. The sound of Granger's voice froze him at the edge of the circle of flickering orange light cast by the fire. The girl was over on the other of the campsite cooing over two unicorns that had wandered down towards the river to drink. She was kneeling on the ground, trying to coax them into letting her pet them and the two silvery creatures were eyeing her with wary interest and pawing the ground nervously.

Draco rolled his eyes and stayed back in the shadows. He doubted the beasties would let him anywhere near them. He honestly could not understand why girls went so crazy over them. Even Millicent got all starry-eyed and mushy when it came to unicorns.  
The bigger unicorn stretched out its neck, ears perked forward and Granger's fingers brushed its muzzle.

Softer than velvet or goose down, Draco thought, struck by a vivid sense memory.

The girl's fingers had barely touched that silk fur when the unicorn recoiled violently. The two beasts reared back and dashed away into the trees. The girl rose slowly, looking enormously disappointed and strangely wistful as she stared after the creatures.

Oh this was too much.

A slow, cruel smile curved Draco's lips.

" So…" he began conversationally and Granger jerked around with a gasp, "Someone lost her ability to touch a unicorn." He sing-songed. " I wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it. We're not as innocent as people think, are we Miss Granger?" he clicked his tongue at her and winked.

She bristled, "Grow up, you walking abscess."

He leaned against a tree with a Cheshire grin, eyeing her speculatively, "So…who was it?"

" What?"

" Who was it who took your…ability to touch a unicorn? Who got in your pants, Granger? Who got to stick his…"

" Don't you dare finish that sentence you sick, perverted little…" she hissed.

" Oh come on, Granger, we're all friends here." He chuckled at her disgusted expression, "You can tell me. I promise I'll keep it secret."

He wasn't sure what he was feeling. A bit of excitement at the general idea of Granger having sex, of her naked and slippery and moaning. A bit of jealousy that someone besides himself had seen her naked, it was supposed to be his little joke, his secret. And quite a bit of that anger, that new kind that didn't have a name. The kind only she could coax from him.

" You're disgusting…"

" Or maybe you didn't let him get all the way." Draco ignored her, looking thoughtful, "You actually did touch the unicorn but only for a second. So maybe he only got his hands on you. Maybe you got cornered in some hallway by one of your little Gryffindor boys, maybe someone who didn't want Potter and Weasley to know what he was up to? Did he put his hands up your blouse? Feel you up a bit? Or maybe he got under that skirt, slipped his fingers in your panties…" he smiled sweetly, "Do you know what a clitoris is, Granger?"

She'd been staring at him in horrified fascination but the crude question shocked her from her stupor. She seemed to swell with rage, a thousand vile curses rose up, poised on her lips…and then very suddenly she went still. Something, some strange epiphany flashed behind her eyes and her face shifted to neutral by slow degrees. She stared at him hard for a minute more and then shook her head, sighing outward heavily, the anger and tension draining from her body.

His wicked smile faded in surprise and disappointment.

" You don't understand anything." She said flatly and her anger seemed to have completely vanished, "You're a sick little monkey who wants attention and you do not understand what you just saw."

Feeling the situation slipping from his grasp he tried to salvage the conversation, " So you're saying, what, that you are a virgin?" he mocked.

She smiled tightly, "I'm not saying anything. If I say I'm a virgin, then you laugh and tell me how I'm so ugly that nobody will ever want me. If I say, yes, I've had sex, then you laugh and tell me I'm a slut and probably have some disease or better yet, " she snorted, "That I only get good grades because I sleep with the teachers."

He was speechless. She was taking all of the fun out of what had promised to be an extremely entertaining conversation. She'd cut him off at the pass, seeing right to the heart of where he was going and getting there before him. Damn it! She was winning and they both knew it.

" Then explain it." he snapped, " What was it I just saw, if it wasn't your loss of innocence?"

For a moment she looked wistful again, " It was loss of innocence, just not the totally clichéd way you're thinking. There are a thousand ways to lose a piece of your innocence, Malfoy."

He sneered at her, "That's cryptic bullshit."

" No, its reality." She bit back, " None of us are as innocent as we were a year ago, two years ago and it has nothing at all to do with sex. I've almost completely lost my ability to touch a unicorn, but it wasn't through any fault of my own."

His eyes narrowed as he sifted through her words and swiftly changed his plan of attack, " So you are saying you're a virgin." He began lightly and strolled casually over to face her. She eyed him warily but stood her ground, " I suppose that's good. I can give you some advice."

" I don't want any advice from…"

" Shh. You want this advice, trust me." He sucked his teeth thoughtfully as he regarded her, " I'd say you're one of those girls who is waiting for true love and marriage…but you're not. I know what you're waiting for. Weasley right? Or Potter? Waiting for one of them to notice you?"

He knew for a fact that Granger was pining after Potter. It was so obvious as to be vomit inducing. Most people assumed she was already dating him, the two boys kept her close and Potter practically kept her on a leash. But the Golden Trio was still as platonic as it had always been, if only because the two boys didn't dare risk their friendship by making a play for her.

" Well, here's my advice: don't waste yourself on them. They're deviants, the both of them. Weasley is clumsy, rough and does not know what the clitoris is…"

" MALFOY!" she yelled in outrage and started to shove him but he caught her arms and calmly pushed her away, at the same time taking a serene step backwards so as to be out of striking distance.

"Just listen, I'm dead serious about this. I've talked to about ten girls he's fucked and not only is he about as gentle as a troll but he can't seem to make any of them enjoy it." He watched her expression carefully and grinned inwardly with wild glee when shock flashed across her features. He knew which part had gotten her, ten girls he'd said. That's right, kiddo, ten's a big number huh.

" He goes like a slobbering minatour in heat for about two minutes then its all over and he falls asleep. So don't go to him for your first time, you'll just get mangled. Don't get me wrong though, Potter's even worse."

Her eyes narrowed and she made a disgusted, disbelieving sound but she continued to listen.

He's your weakness, isn't he? You used to be so sure of him. He was your knight in shining armor. He could do no wrong. But now he runs hot and cold and you don't know what to think.

" Potter's just a damn selfish-fuck." He continued, " He knows what he's doing but he doesn't care if the girl gets off as long as he does. He acts all sweet, gets them in bed, has himself a little bit of fun and then drop kicks them out the door. He doesn't care who they are or what they look like. He even fucked a good half dozen Slytherin girls before I found out and told him to stay the fuck away. And it's the same story with all of them. I don't know how many girls I've talked to who were crying over Potter and how he never spoke to them again after he fucked them. I mean, I'm no gentleman but I serve my ladies, he just makes them into  
whores."

Several emotions flowed through those big pretty eyes, disbelief, doubt, an ashen sort of realization. She didn't believe what he said about Potter and Weasley being rough or unkind, not yet anyway, but there was plausibility in the idea that they might have very active sex lives that she didn't know about. Granger knew they dated lots of girls, but in her blissfully ignorant female naiveté, it had never crossed her mind that her boys were fucking them or, even worse, that they were fucking them and not telling her about it. And she was seeing that now. The scientist in her, the skeptic, the realist, embraced the idea.

" Harry and Ron aren't like that." She snapped.

" No? They're male, they're human and they're very popular. The girls flock to them, don't they? Why should they resist? Don't you ever wonder where they go off to with those girls? There aren't many places to go on 'dates' unless it's a Hogsmead weekend. But there are plenty of places you can go for a quick shag and not get caught." His voice was low and reasonable and just a little wicked," And what about you? If your boys are so sweet and considerate how come they drop you, their dearest little best friend, like a bad habit every time there's a nice piece of ass around? When those girls are around suddenly they don't have  
time for you, most of the time they ditch you all together. I've seen them do it. When other girls are around, you don't even exist. "

Hurt. Hurt filled her eyes. She looked stricken. He'd hit the nail on the head with that one. Oh boy.

Jealous are we, Granger, jealous of all those girls? There are lots of them, aren't there. Lots of girls admiring your boys. And they've been fucking them, oh yes, every single one of them.

She was trembling now, "Its not like that. I don't care what you say, Harry and Ron wouldn't treat people like that." She was denying his accusations of maltreatment but not of their supposed promiscuity or that they ignored her for other girls.

" What do you know? They've never had you in the sack." He said casually, " They won't either. They're very careful with you. Potter especially. If he fucked you and dropped you, you'd never do his homework ever again."

" Shut up." She choked, the color coming back to her cheeks in a crimson flush.

He feigned surprise at her tone and then let his face soften in pity, " Look, I didn't mean to upset you."

She was backing away from him now, "Just shut up right now, Malfoy."

" Hey, I'm only trying to help. Its better that you know the truth. You helped me out with the antlion so I should help you out with this. Forget about Potter. He's rotten. He'll just fuck you and dump you. He's waiting to do it. He acts all sweet, gives you the puppy dog eyes every time you're angry at him for ditching you. But if he really cared about you as much as he says he does, why doesn't he ditch the other girls and go out with you? Face it, he's got you hooked, pining after him, little lovesick schoolgirl. Its pathetic and you know it. Its so pathetic you can't even acknowledge it. You disgust yourself."

" Its not like that." Her breath hitched, "You're just trying to twist things around."

The fake sympathy vanished and his lip curled in a dark, nefarious little smile. He gave a small shrug, "You don't have to believe me, Granger. Believe the girls. Believe Cho and Briskin and Haley and Viradori and Micha and Shayn, Kimmy, Sandra and Shikea..."

" That's… they…" Her breath shuddered out.

Draco closed the distance between them, eyes narrow and whispered, " Potter hugged you and called you his only girl, right? And then Iona walked by. She's taller than you, got that long silky black hair, not frizzy or dull brown like yours." His fingers brushed over her hair, over her cheek, " She's got those big blue eyes and those massive tits. He didn't even glance back, did he? He was gone for two hours. Came back smelling like perfume…like sex and perfume."

Granger's eye went wide, she stared at him in shock.

I know what you're thinking, little girl. How does he know?

Her lips trembled like she was going to speak but in the end she didn't say another word, she just about-faced and tottered away like a little lamb, her shoulders shaking.

Merlin, sometimes she was so cute.

" The best things, kiddo, the very best, "he called after her as she fled, " are the ones I don't have to make up."

He sighed happily into the growing darkness.

So much for unicorns.

oooo

Hermione huddled on the ground, far from the warmth of the fire, trying to stifle her gulping sobs into her sleeves. It was dark and quiet, the only sounds the crackling of the fire and the occasional rustle of some animal or flying rodent. She wasn't sure how long she'd lain there crying.

She was being ridiculous. Malfoy was lying again, that was all. It was what he did. He was a master at it, lying, exaggerating, twisting words around, bending the truth, seeking out weak points with the lightest touch, like a blind man reading brail and then stabbing his fangs through and pumping the wound full of noxious poison. She knew better. She really knew better. She was so stupid for listening to him.

How dare she believe, even for a second any part of the lies he spewed!

She wiped her eyes and sighed. She was just tired, was all. That's why she'd freaked out. Normally she would have bashed him in the face and called him a stupid wanker for talking about the boys like that. It was the combination of fatigue and hunger and all the tension and fights and the shock of his words, the shock of him zeroing in with diamond precision on something she hadn't told anyone, that had just sort of pushed her over the edge.

He was so sick. It was unnerving how he'd managed to pick up on those little insecurities, pick at them like loose threads and pull them till he unraveled her.

How had he known that she was sometimes (all the time) jealous of the attention Ron and Harry gave other girls? How had he known that once in awhile (every single time) she felt lonely when they both had dates, felt like they'd gone off and left her even though they'd be back in a couple hours to laugh and hug her and make her feel treasured.

How had he known how awful she'd felt when Harry walked off with Iona?

How could he! How could he say something so sweet to her, tell her she was his girl, and then leave her like that!)

…got that long silky black hair…

She sobbed.

She didn't believe what Malfoy had said. She didn't believe that the boys were mean. But, damn him, he'd managed to put the idea there, the wiggling little doubt.

Hadn't she seen Jemma Miles crying over Harry, crying like her heart was broken, even though they'd only seen each other once or twice? What could he have done to make her feel like that?

Stop it Hermione!

They hardly ever date the same girl for more than a few weeks at a time and that's their idea of a long relationship. Usually it's just a few days...

STOP IT!

Draco Malfoy was going to drive her crazy. She was going to be raving mad, a certified loony ready to go bouncing into the crazy house by the time they got home.

The last couple of days had been horrible enough without the ferret hopping along behind her like her very own pale demented shadow. She'd never been this tired or hungry in her life. They walked every day till her body felt like a limp noodle. They went to sleep every night on the cold earth with growling bellies and, tonight, with their faces singing with sunburn.

One upside was that they seemed to be sleeping better at night, if only because they were so tired that they were asleep before their heads hit the ground.

They had been lucky with the wild animals for the last couple of days too, had seen only a few. The Roc had scared her to death. When she first saw the huge shadow winging towards them over the golden field and looked up to see that massive black silhouette against the sun, she'd thought for sure it was a dragon or Malfoy's wyvern.

She sniffed. Malfoy's wyvern that didn't exist.

She'd seen a wolf the other night too, while Malfoy was off on one of his mad tweaker missions, a giant white wolf loping off into the trees. Her breath had hitched in her throat, her heart suddenly thundering double-time, but the animal hadn't even glanced at her or her campfire. By far the worst thing they'd seen was that possessed frog. She wasn't even sure why it had been so horrible, she just knew that it made her feel awful, like she was seeing something that had crawled half dead from a nightmare. But if that was the worst thing they saw, then she supposed she should be grateful.

School was going to start the day after tomorrow. She wanted to believe they were going to make it in time. But there seemed to be no end in sight. Was it even a matter of when they were going to make it back? Would they make it back at all? Sometimes she felt like her and Malfoy were on another world, a big empty world that they'd forever circle in their attempt to find their way home.  
Maybe she'd died and gone to hell. She snorted.

Traveling with the ferret was an experience in itself. She had thought maybe if she got to know him a little better he wouldn't be so bad. But she couldn't stand him even when he wasn't snapping at her heels like some kind of vicious animal and trying his hardest to hurt or humiliate her. He was obnoxious and loud even on his best behavior. He talked constantly. He complained about everything nonstop. He was tired, his feet hurt, this was her fault, it was hot, or he'd launch off onto some tangent that had little to do with anything but always seemed to come around to the point that stupid muggles were responsible for all the ills in the wizard world.

Or even worse, he'd start bragging about his family and she'd have to listen to him explain his background, pedigree, family creed, how his family had helped shape society blah blah blah… She now knew more about the Malfoy bloodline then she'd ever wanted to know. She needed earplugs. Desperately.

The really funny part was that sometimes he wasn't doing it to deliberately provoke her. Sometimes he'd be talking and he'd forget who he was talking to.

She could see it, the visible relaxing of his tense body, the softening of his face, sometimes the barest hint of a real smile. And he'd just talk on glibly and easily as if he were talking to Crabbe or Goyle or another Slytherin. He was a fast talker, a bragger and an exaggerator, sometimes he was funny and, when he was really relaxed, there was an underlying sort of inadvertent friendliness, something akin to charisma. She noticed it because it was different from the way he usually spoke, or maybe it was just different from the way he usually to spoke to her when he came at her, Ron and Harry in full seek-and-destroy mode.

He'd go on talking to her in that easy manner, then later, sometimes hours later, he would suddenly remember who he was talking to and the results were explosive. He'd puff up like an angry cat, stiffening defensively, sometimes in almost a panic, and start spitting out any nasty thing that came to mind to remind them both that they were enemies.

Like this afternoon, she could have sworn his attempt to 'feed her to the trees' had been half playful. Like when Ron grabbed her in the astronomy towers and threatened to throw her out the window. And she'd reacted just as if he were Ron, kicking and shrieking but not at all worried that he would actually do it. He'd been completely bluffing from the beginning and they both knew it. But then he'd realized what he was doing, that he had a Mudblood practically wrapped up in his arms, and he'd reacted like he'd stuck his finger in a light socket. He'd gotten angry and violent. It was like he was punishing her or being extra mean to  
make up for his accidental slip into humanity.

Humanity. Geez, she could have punched his lights out for that remark. He'd meant it too. He'd meant every poisonous word and that had just torn her up. That just because she wasn't pureblood, she wasn't human. How could anyone think that? Rotten. He was so rotten.

It had taken everything she had not to start screaming at him and trying to defend herself. But she knew better by now. He'd been waiting for it, intent on dragging her into another fight. He was angry and he wanted to fight. It wasn't even on his agenda to listen to her rebuttal, no matter what he'd screamed after her as she walked away. It would have been a waste of breath to try and reason with him, to give him any real facts or try to change his mind. His mind was set, his ears would not hear. There was no reason to even open her mouth. It would be like trying to hold an intelligent debate with a brick wall.

Walking away had been the best option, even though it had taken all her willpower to do so and left her awake half the night just seething over his remark, thinking of a thousand things she wanted to say, wanting to hurt him as much as those words had hurt her. Then she'd woken up the next morning and found that her monthlies had started and that had just been the icing on the cake. She'd wanted to throw her head back and scream. It had still been early, predawn, and she scrambled to find something, anything at all, to fix the situation. Because she did not, under any circumstances, want to explain to Malfoy that they couldn't  
leave yet because she was on her period.  
S

he'd gotten lucky. So very very lucky. She actually wept when she found her solution (Sangiri seeds to halt the flow and absorbent Medicarp moss) and Malfoy slept through the entire ordeal. In fact, he slept hours later than she did. So she had hours to sit by the fire and contemplate him even after she'd gone out on a brief forage for food.

It was really strange how you could see someone almost every day for seven years and not 'see' them. She'd been absolutely stunned after the whole antlionmirage-Malfoy ordeal. How could she have ever thought that faded decoy looked a thing like him? She was stunned that she, who prided herself on having a realistic, down-to-earth view of things, could have a perception of the world that was so skewed. Malfoy was supposed to be the one with the warped mind, Death Eater spawn that he was, not her!

Perversely, she'd been mad at Malfoy for tainting her perception of the world. She was furious that now there were times she couldn't even look at him without blushing. She was mad at him for a whole lot of things come to think of it. The events of the last week, every nasty thing he'd said and done, kept circling about in her head, festering and bubbling until her eyes settled on the empty cauldron next to the fire and she made a very rash decision.

Oh yeah. Scream baby, scream.

And after that moment of waterlogged triumph…

I am so dead. He's gonna murder me.

He hadn't. He'd pulled one of his Malfoy mood-swings and ended up laughing at her instead, divining everything she didn't want him to know in one fell swoop.

She sighed tiredly.

In all honesty, he hadn't been too awful the last couple of days. Of course they'd both been too busy to pay much attention to each other. They'd fought, he'd pushed her around, she'd thrown rocks at him, once hard enough to send him tearing into the woods to avoid being hit. Throwing rocks at him had happened on something of a whim, when she'd been so frustrated that it was either throw something at him or go screaming mad and claw her own eyes out, but ultimately it seemed to have been a wise choice. Malfoy now took greater care about choosing whether or not he wanted to get physically violent now that she might  
choose to break his skull open in retaliation.

Today hadn't been their worst fighting. It was just that he'd scored a direct hit this time. He'd gone straight for her heart and cut deep.

Don't think about it anymore. Forget him. Forget Malfoy.

She rolled onto her back to stare up at the stars, losing herself in the deep blue washed with diamonds. She had a vague idea that she should be able to tell where they were by what constellations she could see, but even she wasn't that good.

What was everyone at home doing?

Her parents were probably out of their minds with worry. They knew all about Voldemort and the war. They'd been informed after the Craighton mall massacre two years ago. They were probably terrified that she was dead.

Unbidden, faded memories of Karina rose up in her mind and she bit her lip, her heart squeezing painfully and the stinging tears welling up again.

Harry and Ron and everyone probably assumed she'd been kidnapped, what with Malfoy missing too. She wondered vaguely what Lucius thought. Did he think she had kidnapped his son? The thought made her give a little sobbing giggle. Maybe she'd tell everyone back home that she had kidnapped him. It was her fault they hit the portkey after all.

What about Dumbledore? Did he know what had happened? Why hadn't he found her yet? The man wasn't omniscient but he was the next best thing. He had to have some way of tracking his students. How else did he find her in the first place, back when she was just a little muggle girl who could grab scorching hot cookies right off the oven pan and not get burnt and sometimes make the old music box that grandma had given her work when everyone else said it was broken...

Harry, what are you doing tonight Harry?

She went to sleep with the sound of the old music box chiming in her ears.

She woke to full sun, her body stiff and cold and her tongue feeling like a shag carpet in her mouth. Her right arm had fallen asleep underneath her. She grunted and flopped onto her side to let it come awake with pinpricking tingles, rubbing to increase the circulation. She sat up and then her stomach twisted painfully and she jerked forward onto her knees and nearly threw up, a wave of spots fuzzing her vision. The moment passed and she was left sweating and shaking and breathing hard.

Please, please, please don't let me be getting sick. She chanted desperately in her mind, although she didn't think that was the problem.

The problem was that she hadn't had any real food in days. What did she have to eat yesterday? A handful of berries and half a palm-full of nuts? Actually a quarter of a palm-full because she'd given half to Malfoy.

Her face was hot and painful with sunburn and her mouth was parched and desert dry. Limbs stiff and joints cracking, she crawled on hands and knees to the edge of the river and drank deeply. A shuffling sound behind her caused her to turn in time to see Malfoy pushing up on his arms only to klutz over on himself, landing on his side and swearing softly. She would have laughed if she didn't feel like crying.

He'd been complete uncoordinated lately. Physical stress was apparently messing with his ferret equilibrium.

The boy didn't look at her, didn't speak to her, just dragged himself over to the leaf-littered river shore. They washed up in the icy water, drinking as much as they could to fill their empty bellies and dull the stabbing hunger pains. There was nothing for breakfast and he didn't ask. It took only a moment to pack her stuff up and stomp out the fire and then they headed out without saying a word, their pace slow and hobbling.

After only ten minutes, Hermione was panting and sweating. Her head felt all light and hazy and her stomach was a twisted knot of bitterness. The world began to tilt and dip five minutes later and a numb tingling sensation began buzzing through her entire body only to coalesce in front of her eyes, like snow on an empty television channel.

She realized quite calmly that she was on the verge of passing out and that passing out was most definitely not an option. Getting sick or passing out was the worst possible thing she could do. If Malfoy thought she couldn't keep up anymore, he'd leave her.  
He'd told her so himself.

He'd just keep going. He'd said he knew which direction to head now. He didn't need her compass. If she became too much trouble, he'd ditch her. It wasn't a claim she had the courage to test him on either. She didn't want to find out whether or not he was bluffing because she was pretty certain he wasn't.

Breathing hard through her nose, she concentrated on trying to clear the bubbly carbonated feeling from her head, gritting her teeth and digging her fingernails into her hand when it felt like she was about to go numb and float away.

Malfoy was a blurry shape in front of her. She focused on him as hard as she could but then the bubbles rushed up, straight from her toes.

Oh no. Oh no.

And when they got to her head in an effervescent rush everything melted away.

When she opened her eyes again she was on her back on the ground and Malfoy was kneeling over her, shaking her. Her backpack lay to the side. She mustn't have been out long, a minute at most.

" What the fuck is wrong with you?" the boy asked when she focused on him, his expression wavering somewhere between consternation and annoyance.

" I dunno." She croaked, "Everything just went blurry…"

He rose to his feet as she pushed herself into a sitting position. Even that seemed to be an exertion and sweat dripped down her forehead.

" I feel really sick." she whispered.

" Yeah, well, I don't feel so hot myself." Malfoy said without sympathy, "Get up."

Slowly, she got to her feet and even that was hard. She was shaky and her stomach turned with nausea. Malfoy gave her a once over, deemed her fit and walked away. She tried to follow him. She managed to get five paces before her knees buckled again and she crumpled to the ground sniffling with helpless tears.

" Ah, shit, Granger." Malfoy sounded disgusted. He stomped back to her to stand over her impotently, "Are you sick? Do you have a fever?"

" I don't think so. I feel a little hot because of the sunburn. But its mostly dizziness and queasiness like I'm going to throw up. I don't know what I'm going to throw up since I haven't really eaten in three days." She began to sob quietly.

" Shit. Fucking shit." He went on stringing curses together, completely at a loss.

" Malfoy…" she stared down at her knees, "I don't think I'm going to be able to go any further today."

" You stupid, useless bitch." He turned his back on her without another word and stormed away.

Hermione bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking down her cheeks. She did not want to watch him walk away, did not want to see her last link to human civilization callously disappear over the next hill and leave her to sit there until either her strength returned enough for her to find shelter or something came along and finished her off.

Damn him. Damn him for doing this to her.

And damn her. A lot of good all those spells and facts did her now. She thought bitterly. When it really counted, she just wasn't strong enough or smart enough or anything enough...

An arm wrapped around her shoulders and she yelped in surprise as she was hauled unkindly to her feet. There was a moment where she leaned unsteadily against him, wondering what the heck was going on, before she was roughly wrenched off her feet and into Draco Malfoy's arms.

" Fucking, stupid bitch. Ugly Gryffindor mother fucking…" the muttered curses kept coming, long lists of increasingly vulgar expletives that, at the moment, she was too stunned to take personally.

She rested her head on his shoulder and stared at her knees, not daring to look at him, or question this turn of events, not daring to even wonder what he was doing. Because he couldn't possibly be helping her. She kept quiet, afraid to do anything but meekly hold onto him.

It took her a few minutes to realize he was taking her back to the oasis.

" You're fucking heavy." He panted, "You could stand to lose a few pounds for someone whining about being hungry."

He continued cursing and berating her, coming up with shocking and impressive word combinations, some of which she numbly made a mental note to remember, all the way back to the river campsite. She peeked up at him once from under her hair and saw him staring determinedly forward, his face set and

hard. Back under the shade of the trees, he unceremoniously dropped her next to the remains of their fire and she landed with a bruising jolt.

" Stay." He snapped, pointing a finger warningly as if she were a dog, and disappeared into the brush.

She stared after him, shell-shocked.

Just what in the world was going on?

She knew better than to ask. For once, analyzing the situation didn't seem like a good idea. She lay down instead, pressing her cheek to the cool earth gratefully, waiting for the dizzy sickness to pass. She'd experienced something like this before. A few summers ago she'd gone with some friends on a very long bike ride on a very hot day on a very empty stomach. Her head had gone hot and fizzy and her stomach had warbled. She hadn't fainted, but she'd been forced to get off her bike and sit down rather abruptly. This was a lot like that.

She dozed lightly, drifting in and out of real thoughts and restless half-formed dreams. She had no real way of knowing how long she lay there but she thought her strength returned fairly quickly, telling her that her body's reaction had been more of a warning then a serious lapse. Not that it wasn't serious. She just wasn't down for the count yet. When she finally sat up, she was still tired but able to move without nausea. The oasis was quiet, Malfoy was still out somewhere doing who knows what.

Was it possible he was out looking for food? Ridiculous! He didn't know what to look for. If that were the case, she should probably go help him.

She reached with one hand for her backpack and turned quickly when she realized it wasn't there. Had Malfoy left it out there in the grasslands? She wouldn't be surprised.

That idiot.

With a groan and a sigh, she got to her feet, pleased when no spots rushed her vision. She'd taken two steps towards the trees when an angry voice made her jump.

" I told you to stay put!" Malfoy barked.

" Sorry," she mumbled," I was feeling a little better. I thought I'd look for food."

" Yeah and then you'd do one of your stupid fainting bouts out there and I'd have to go find you." He stomped into their campsite, glowering.

Okay, so he had a point.

" Here." He tossed something at her feet and it landed in a brown-furred boneless flop.

Hermione squealed, jerking back in horror. The dead rabbit stared up at her with glazed eyes, its mouth open in a frozen scream, square yellow-brown teeth jutting outward obscenely.

" Oh mi gosh, Malfoy! What did you do!" she screamed, staring down at the poor thing, completely appalled.

Malfoy sneered at her, apparently pleased with her reaction.

" You killed a little rabbit? Why? How could you?" she was shaking with anger, " Did you do it for fun? Does this sort of thing get you off? What is wrong with you?"

Malfoy burst into laughter at her indignation. He clutched his side and laughed until he almost cried.

She couldn't believe him, she glared at him, her face flushed.

" Oh, Merlin! Poor Mr. bunny!" Malfoy gasped out between laughs, "You're insane Granger, really."

" And you're really sick." She hissed, "Perverted, nasty freak…"

He sobered, face darkening, " I think we've already discussed which one of us is the freak."

" We haven't discussed anything yet, but I look forward to the conversation. There is something wrong with you, isn't there. You make darn sure everyone knows who the freaks are so they won't look too closely at you…"

He went still, some emotion, something odd and guarded, flashing across his face, but then he snarled, "Ungrateful bitch. See if I ever bring you food again."

Food?

It hit her quite suddenly and then she felt incredibly stupid. The rabbit. The rabbit was food. Of course the rabbit was food! What in the world was she thinking?

It had just sort of surprised her brain. She'd never actually looked at a living creature, or a dead one in this instance and identified it in her mind as food.

Something seemed fundamentally wrong with the concept but here it was. And then Malfoy had surprised her by tossing the poor little corpse at her feet and well…

She glanced queasily down at the bunny, still a little horrified, " Food. You brought me food?"

Draco Malfoy had brought her food. The idea sank in and she looked up at him in awe.

His eyes narrowed and he took a step back, " Oh no! Don't you dare look at me like that! I did not do this out of the kindness of my heart! I'm helping you because if I don't keep you around then I might end up walking into another antlion's nest or something like that. I don't care how sick you are or how bad you feel, in fact I find your pain incredibly funny. So don't you for one second get gooey-eyed on me you psychotic troll."

A bit of cold reality reinstated itself with his words and she nodded slowly but was still a little amazed at him despite herself, "

Thanks Malfoy… I mean, thanks anyway. I'm…I'm sorry I yelled at you." She choked on the words. The apology was warranted, she supposed, but it still took a lot of willpower to force the words out, " Um, I have no idea…how to prepare it." she gestured lamely to the dead thing at her feet.

He growled and rolled his eyes, "I'll set this one up to cook for you and then go out again. This isn't going to feed us both."

She stoked a fire as he sat down and unsheathed his knife, taking hold of the rabbit with practiced ease. She closed her eyes and looked away, a tiny sound escaping her lips as the blade bit into flesh.

" Hey!" Malfoy snapped, "You're going to watch this and learn how to do it. I had to suffer through you bitching to me about circles and protective plants and all that crap, so you have to watch this."

That was fair, she guessed. She cracked her eyes open to see the boy scowling at her. He grinned evilly when she met his eyes and proceeded to explain the process gleefully as he sliced and diced and then tore the skin off and…oh Merlin…she was going to barf.

" Look, Granger, it's the heart. Yummy!"

She moaned low in her throat, covering her eyes to escape seeing the tiny red organ in Malfoy's bloody hand. He laughed at her, delighted. She shrieked in horror when he hacked off the rabbit's head and threw it at her, her face several shades paler than normal.

Food or not, he was a maniac to be able to chop that poor thing to pieces like that.

He set the animal on a spit and stuck the end of the spit into the dirt at an angle so the rabbit hung over the fire.

" When…uh, how can you tell when its done?" she asked, shakily.

Malfoy gave her a blank look and shrugged, " Just make sure it doesn't catch fire. It doesn't taste good charred."

She slapped a hand to her forehead at this perfectly Draco cooking advice, as the boy went to toss the bloody waste into the underbrush and wash his hands inthe stream.

" Go ahead and eat all of it. I'll get us some more." Malfoy said finally and left without another word.

Food, food, food, food, dead bunny, oh Merlin, fooood. And not just food, MEAT! She hadn't had meat in a week.

She was left staring at the roasting meat, watching it like the pot that never boils. She groaned, the smell of cooking meat was intoxicating, had her stomach jumping and gurgling in anticipation, but the preparation of the carcass was still vivid in her mind, threatening to make her ill.

That jerk, he did this on purpose.

Several things turned through her mind as she turned the spit over the fire. The most obvious being that, from the confident way Malfoy had dismembered and disemboweled the unfortunate forest creature, this was something he did quite often. Which meant…

Which meant that that despicable, nasty, vile inbreed had been eating meat this entire time AND taking half of her collected food on top of that! She realized in outrage. What a sleaze!

He'd been hunting from the beginning. That's where he went when he snuck off every night! That's why he was always taking firestone from her backpack! And that's why he never ever complained about being hungry. He might ask for food but he never actually said he was hungry. He had been trying, maybe even subconsciously, not to alert her to what he was doing.

That rotten, evil git! To be getting extra food and eating it all himself and not bringing her a scrap! She remembered that it had occurred to her before that he might be finding food and eating it himself, she hadn't thought it would bother her. It wouldn't have bothered her had he not insisted on eating half of what she collected as well. But that he had the nerve to take half of her food and then not share what he had found just blew her mind!

Oooh, she wanted to tear into him. Here she'd been dying of hunger and he'd been having barbecue every night!

Speaking of which…

Nothing so nasty had ever tasted so good as that poor murdered creature. At first the meat was so hot she burnt her fingers and her tongue when she tore strips of meat off and stuffed them in her mouth without thought, but she didn't care. Her stomach screamed in welcome. She had to put the meat back over the fire once or twice when certain areas looked suspiciously pink but on the whole the animal was cooked much better than Draco's first try. She didn't know that though.

The boy returned as she was finishing up and licking her fingers eagerly.

" I got lucky." He grunted and two more rabbits hit the ground near the fire, " But the rest of them know I'm out here now. It'll be harder to catch anymore."

She pulled her finger from her lips with a wet smack, "Just how in the world are you catching them anyway? Its not like you have a gun…or a wand." She added at his blank look, " All you have is that knife. Do you know how to set traps or something? I think catching one is pretty amazing, let alone three."

He looked away, " I used to go hunting a lot with Ryan Nott and some friends."

" So you do know nature stuff and you've been keeping it a secret this whole time!" she accused.

He shrugged, " I know how to hunt, that's about it. We didn't go prancing around the woods gathering flowers."

" Oh and I do?" she snapped.

He gave her a withering look, "If you have the strength to bitch at me, then you must be feeling better. I'll put one more rabbit on to cook, you can have the whole thing. But I want to save the last one for now."

He was gone a lot longer this time and when he finally returned it was with four squirrels and…

" OH MI GOSH! GET THAT AWAY FROM ME!"

" People eat these, don't they?" he questioned uncertainly, holding up the headless snake.

" Y,yes, I've heard of people eating rattlesnakes. But Malfoy, squirrels? That's just gross."

" We'll eat lizards and grasshoppers if we have to." He said adamantly and looked vaguely pleased with the idea, "Are you still hungry?"

" No…I think I just lost my appetite."

" We don't have time for girly-shit, Granger. Are you hungry?"

" No. I'm full."

" Fine. Get out of the way. I'm starved."

She moved away from the fire though it wasn't really necessary, "Where's my backpack?"

" Uh, oh yeah, its in my bag." He flopped down next to the fire and fished out his bag, tugging her backpack out from the thin sack.

Hermione took it from him, " Are we going to leave after you eat?"

Now that her stomach was happy, she was full of energy, feeling much better and rearing to go.

" No, we're staying here for the rest of the day."

Her jaw dropped, "But school starts tomorrow! We can't waste a whole day just sitting here!"

" Granger, you could barely stand up this morning and I was almost about to fall over myself. We need to rest today."

" No way, Malfoy! No way am I just going to sit here! We have to get back!"

" Sit down! The only thing we need to do is stay alive, so shut the hell up. We wouldn't make it back in time anyway even if we started right now so relax and we'll start again early tomorrow morning."

" NO! We leave now!" she put steel into her voice, telling him she wouldn't balk on this issue.

Malfoy gestured towards the grasslands," Go ahead. You're free to go. Nothings keeping you here."

She stood there uncertainly for a minute or two, knowing full well that she wouldn't leave without him and also that there was no way to budge him if he didn't want to go.

Finally she made a ragged sound of frustration, " You just don't understand! I'm Head Girl…"

" You'll be easy enough to replace. " Malfoy interrupted dryly, calmly skinning his rabbit.

" And what about the NEWTS? We have NEWTS this year and I for one want to be prepared!"

" For someone supposedly so smart, you are oppressively stupid. You were ready for NEWTS two years ago and you damn well know it. As for me, I could give a shit about the NEWTS."

" You…don't want to do well?" the idea was appalling.

" I don't need to do well. My dad can buy me into any job I want." He snorted, " Hell, I don't even have to work if I don't want to. Its not like I'm ever going to need the money. The only reason Malfoys do work at all is so we can set an example for society and be able to help out in the Ministry."

She peered at him through her lashes," You mean so you can bribe and threaten the Ministry."

Malfoy smirked, " Just so."

" What happened to Slytherin ambition? I thought you had plans?"

" I do have plans. I'm just not going to kill myself to accomplish them if I don't have to. Its Hufflepuffs who get off on hard work. Slytherins know a good deal when they see one."

Hermione sank down on the ground, cross-legged, frowning, "What are you going to do after Hogwarts?"

Malfoy snorted, " Move out for one. My mum doesn't want me to cuz Malfoy's are supposed to live at the Malfoy mansion or some stupid shit like that. Tradition blah blah blah. But I can't wait to get my own place."

Hermione smirked, "You'll have to get yourself a House-Elf, otherwise you'll drown in your own filth. You're a slob."

Malfoy grinned, " Heh. I can always hire a Muggle House-keeper. What say you, Granger? Need a job?"

" SHUT UP!" but she giggled, " I don't want any job that involves folding your moldy underwear."

He laughed," You should be so lucky…" he started but then he suddenly froze, his grin vanished and his face went cold and dark in an instant, " Fuck you, Muddy! You'll be lucky to be alive, let alone a servant, after we take over." And he turned his back on her.

Hermione's smile faded, her heart sinking.

He'd done it again. For just a second they were almost having a civil conversation, their very first one, and then he'd caught himself and reverted.

He must have been very tired to let himself fall into conversation with her without realizing it. Or maybe he was just getting used to having her around and his guard was dropping.

She studied his brooding face and knew he was going to make her pay for this big time.

He'd carried her in his arms, brought her food and talked with her. Later today or maybe tomorrow, there was going to be hell to pay. She would suffer dearly for each moment he hadn't been his usual bad Slytherin self.

The boy sat in front of the fire, intent on his work. The rabbit carcass was now roasting and he was working on the squirrels (Yuk!). He had withdrawn completely back into himself. His face was neutral, his mouth set in a cold, disdainful line but his eyes darted about like a hunted thing.

In a flash of insight, she wondered how closely he was watched back home. He was the perfection of all things Slytherin, he was their King, the center of attention at all times. A slip up like the one just now could have cost him his crown back home. What would everyone say if they knew he'd been talking and joking with a Mudblood?

Back at Hogwarts he was never alone, and even now, here, in the middle of nowhere, he couldn't relax. Because someone somewhere somehow might see him being "nice" to a Mudblood and tell his father. He wasn't betraying them. No, she understood. He was doing what he had to do, helping her to help himself.

But someone else, and it was the Slytherin thing to do, could easily take his actions and twist them until he looked the traitor.  
That would destroy him completely, his reputation, his power…

What was it like to have his every word, every movement, recorded and analyzed by a hundred pairs of eyes? To have everyone else watching him for cues on how to behave? To have his detractors just waiting for him to slip up? To have his father, the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself breathing down his neck?

It was not that he was being forced to be something he wasn't. She didn't believe that for an instant. No, he was Slytherin and pureblood all the way down to his black little soul. He hated her, if not for being a Muggle then for being Harry Potter's friend. It was just that he was constantly putting on a show, playing the part of the ultimate Slytherin. Back home it was probably something he enjoyed immensely. He loved the attention, the shock, the notoriety.

But out here, he couldn't find respite from the role. This whole situation had to be screwing with his head. He was tired but he couldn't relax, couldn't act like he normally would when he was tucked up snug in the Slytherin common room surrounded by kith and kin. No, tonight he was bunked with the enemy so he had to keep his guard up, no matter how tired he was, no matter how much he just wanted to lay the role aside and rest.

She tucked her knees up to her chin and closed her eyes. She was tired too.


End file.
